Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/373

 STRUTHERS CASTLE - 353 - THIRD PERIOD valuable old furniture was dispersed, and the castle allowed to fall into Fia. 305. Avondale Castle. View from the North-East. ruin, a process which has evidently been greatly hastened by the hand of man. STRUTHERS CASTLE, FIFESHIRE. Struthers Castle is situated about three miles south from Cupar in Fife, and midway between Scotstarvet Tower and the ruins of Craighall. Although formerly a place of great size and strength, and inhabited by its noble owners till last century, it is now a mere fragmentary wreck. Neither the strength of its walls nor the associations thrown over it by the genius of Sir David Lindsay, have availed to save Struthers from becoming a prey to the most ruthless spoliation, so that little more than a bare outline of its plan is all that can now be traced. The main portion has been of the L form (Fig. 306), with a wing projecting eastwards from the centre of the eastern limb. The gable of this wing, with the beginning of the return walls, is entire. This gable is flanked by two huge buttresses (Fig 307), measuring about 9 feet broad, tapering upwards, and rounded at the top by corbelling, so as to support a turret. These are remarkable features, and z