Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/283

 CR.UGNETHAN CASTLE 263 THIRD PERIOD The adjoining courtyard to the east of the keep is also brought to the upper level by a vaulted basement. These vaults enter from a small door in the south wall leading to a passage from which the doors of the vaults open. This passage may also have had communication with the vaults under the keep. The first floor of the south-east tower contains a kitchen 26' feet 3 inches by 19 feet 3 inches, with a lofty vault built with well-dressed freestone. It enters from the courtyard, and has three large windows in the outer walls, which are 6 feet 6 inches thick. From chases which remain in the walls there would appear to have been some elaborate apparatus for roasting animals whole in front of the great fireplace. The upper floor (over the vault) has been mounted with cannons (Fig. 214), for which horizontal embrasures are provided in the south and east walls, immediately under the corbels of the parapet. Embrasures of this description are very uncommon at this height, being generally situated on the ground floor. In this case they are sloped downwards so as to command the very steep banks which descend from the castle to the river. Access to this top floor and the battlements was obtained by an external stair on the north side of the tower, now demolished. The outer court lying to the west of the moat, being overlooked from the adjoining ground, was not so carefully fortified as the inner court, but it was surrounded with a sub- stantial wall 3 feet 6 inches thick, provided with embrasures for guns at the ground level, and with a conti- nuous battlemented parapet on top. The west front (Fig. 211), being the most exposed, is strengthened with towers at the angles, and the central gateway is also defended by a tower. The angle towers formed guard- rooms, and each had a stair leading to the battlements. The north-west tower (Fig. 21 1) has the upper story fitted up as a pigeon-house ; the upper wall is thinned off so that a passage for the parapet walk round the outside may be obtained. All round the interior of the walls, at the level of the parapet walk, there is a row of corbels to carry a wall plate. This may either have served to receive the ends of the rafters of the roofs of stables and other FIG. 216. Craignethan Castle. Old Oak Door.