Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/326

 THIRD PERIOD 306 DARNAWAY CASTLE roof (Fig. 26l) of the hall has been preserved, and is a specimen almost unique in this class of work in Scotland. The open timber roofs of the Parliament Houses at Stirling and Linlithgow have entirely disappeared, as well as those of Doune, Dirleton, Tantallon, and all the larger castles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The fine roof of Darnaway, the smaller one of the House of the Knights of St. John in Linlithgow, 1 and that of the Parliament House, Edinburgh, are almost all that remain to give an idea of what these others must have been. Darnaway Castle is situated on a rising ground in the midst of an extensive forest not far from the river Findhorn, and about three miles from Brodie Railway Station. A castle was originally built here by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, who was Regent during the minority of David n., and the pre- sent building is traditionally said to be Randolph's castle. It appears however from the Exchequer Accounts that the existing ancient hall was begun by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, about 1450. The Earl being forfeited, the King allowed the building to be proceeded with in the style of grandeur and solidity which Douglas had contemplated (see the Accounts for 1456-58). In 1810 a large new castle was erected in front of the ancient hall, and connected with it, so that the hall forms part of the existing mansion. The walls have however been greatly altered. The old Statistical Account describes it before the alterations as an ancient pile 89 feet long and 35 feet wide, having a balcony in the outer end, with a music gallery above, from side to side. There was a large chimney in the opposite end, and another spacious fireplace on one of its sides. The modern fireplace in the north side of the hall probably occupies- the position of the latter, but the other fireplace and the balcony and gallery have been swept away. All that now remains of the ancient hall is the open timber roof. It is well preserved, and is of fine dark oak. From its style it seems to belong to the latter half of the fifteenth century. In constructive design it somewhat resembles the roof of the hall of Edinburgh Castle, which was probably erected by James v. The design is in this respect rather weak. The principals of the roof are very varied in design, but they have all the fault^ like those at Edinburgh, of not having a proper tie. They evidently belong to a late period of Gothic art ; the variety of the forms of the rafters is in itself an evidence of this.* The simplicity and purity of the earlier forms, of which so many specimens exist in England, is here conspicuously absent. It is only in its general effect, not in detail, that this roof can suggest the probable appearance of those of a simpler and earlier style, of which we have a solitary example in the House of the Knights of St. John. 1 We have however in the Parliament House and the Tron Church iit Edinburgh good specimens of open timber roofs of a still later date. 1 Demolished since the above was written !