Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/302

 THIRD PERIOD DUNOLLY CASTLE the south and west the face of the cliff determines the area of the court- yard. On both these fronts the rock was a sufficient protection from assault, walls being only necessary to screen the courtyard. The exist- ence of walls along these fronts is now indicated by grassy mounds, except at the north-west angle, where there are remains of what seem to have been later buildings. Outside the two existing curtain walls to the north and east, the summit of the rock is fairly level for an average distance of about twenty yards, beyond which the ground falls steeply. The approach to the castle was from the north. The castle is of great strength, the walls varying from 9 to 1 1 feet in thickness. The entrance is in the east curtain, through a doorway about 5 feet wide, provided with a bar-hole. There is another zigzag entrance through the north curtain. FIG. 234. Dunolly Castle. Plans. The keep measures 39 feet by 37 feet outside, and contains a vaulted chamber on the ground floor about 14 feet high, lighted by two narrow slits. This is the only vaulted floor in the keep, all the upper floors having been of timber, the corbels for the beams of which still remain. The entrance doorway to the keep is on the ground floor. In the right- hand ingoing of the doorway a straight stair, 2 feet 3 inches wide, formed in the thickness of the wall, leads to the first floor, landing near the centre of the south wall. This floor, which was not the principal one, was also reached from the courtyard by a ladder (Fig. 235), the door being nearly above the one below. This doorway has the unusual arrangement