Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/303

 DUNOLLY CASTLE 283 THIRD PERIOD of a bar-hole inside, while, curiously enough, the door below is not so provided. The first floor, measuring 21 feet 9 inches by 19 feet 6 inches, is lighted by two windows, and contains a garde-robe and fireplace. FIG. 235. Dunolly Castle. View from the South-West. The second or hall floor is reached by a stair in the thickness of the wall, starting from the ingoing of the outer entrance doorway similarly to the stair below, and from the top of this stair a " corkscrew " in the south-west angle leads to the top. The hall, entered at the south-west corner (see Plan), is similar to the floor below, only that its windows are wider, and contain stone seats, and it is of greater height, being 12 feet as against 9 feet. The upper floor over the hall measures about 8 feet from the corbels for supporting its floor to the parapet walk. The height from the ground to the parapet walk is thus about 45 feet in all, and, allowing 5 feet for the parapet, brings the height of the walls to about 50 feet. Like the neighbouring castle of Dunstaffnage, Dunolly has a tradi- tion carrying the date of its erection much further back than sober history can follow. It is supposed to have been the original seat of the Macdougalls, Lords of Lorn, and may have been the site of a primitive fortalice. There is, however, no reasonable grounds for dating it earlier than the beginning of the fifteenth century, although the site, which is a markedly strong one, may have been occupied for defence at a very early period.