Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/299

 279 THIRD PERIOD gant but effective manner characteristic of the above date, so as to make it square externally as well as internally. This enables it to be roofed with gables, and these have the rare peculiarity of being finished with flat skews, and not with crow-steps, as was the almost invariable practice at the time. The shot-holes under the windows of the upper floors have the usual widely splayed ingoing, but it is divided with fillets to prevent bullets from being guided into the interior by the slope of the aperture. DUFFUS CASTLE, ELGINSHIRE. This castle occupies a remarkable site. It stands on the top of an isolated gravel mound in the centre of a flat plain, about two miles north from Elgin, and is still surrounded with a wide ditch on the level ground beyond the base of the hill, enclosing about nine acres of ground. There is nothing to indicate when this ditch was made, but, from the extent of ground enclosed, and from the nature of the site generally, it seems not unlikely that this was originally a fortress of the ancient type before the existing stone-and-lime castle was built. A castle is said to have been erected here in the time of David n., but the present building is probably about a century later. In the centre of the space enclosed with the fosse there is a natural mound of some extent. The general plan (Fig. 230) shows that this raised ground was surrounded at the top of the slope with a high wall of enceinte, some portions of which still remain, and may possibly be older than the keep. The latter occupies the u motte," or highest point of the site, which is probably in whole or part an artificial mound, as the foundations on the north side have slipped, and large masses of the north wall of the keep have slid, almost in one piece, down the slope (Fig. 229). The motte, as was usual in .ancient fortifications, is placed on the line of the enceinte. The plan of the keep (Fig. 231) is somewhat unusual, the ordinary quadrilateral figure being broken up with several projections, and the east wall, which is within the wall of enceinte, has a carefully dressed base with a triple splay. Fio. 230. Duffus Castle. Plan of Site.