Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/449

 TANTALLON CASTLE 429 THIRD PERIOD Probably the idea was to limit strangers and guests to this part of the castle, the isolated residence or keep over the entrance passage being reserved for the owner and his family only. TANTALLON CASTLE, HADDINGTONSHIRE. The castle of Tantallon is another magnificent specimen of the edifices erected about the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the form of a quadrangle. This castle, like Doune, belonged to Murdoch, Duke of Albany. Here also, as there, the entrance passes under a large building, which formed an independent castle or keep. The fortress of Tantallon occupies a bold promontory at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and about three miles eastwards from North Berwick. Being sufficiently protected on three sides by the nature of its site (Fig. 375), which consists of a lofty peninsula with perpendicular rocks, washed at their base by the German Ocean, it was only necessary to defend it artificially on the fourth or western side. There it is protected by a deep ditch cut in the rock, and by enormous curtain walls 12 feet thick and about 50 feet high (Fig. 376), crowned with battlements, but without machicolations. In front of this is a large level court about 500 feet long by 220 feet wide, beyond which there is another deep ditch and high mound. On the north side this platform is protected by perpendicular rocks and the sea, and on the south side by a rocky ravine, through which a small burn discharges into the sea. Still further westwards, by about 200 feet, there is another mound and ditch running from the rocks on the north to near the ravine on the south, when its turns eastwards, and runs parallel to the burn till it joins the first enclosure. The entrance road to the castle lay between the last mound and the burn, and was thus carried round, and commanded by a considerable part of the outworks before it reached the gateway at the south end of the outer court. The entrance to the castle itself (Fig. 377) was by a draw- bridge over the ditch, and a lofty gateway, 10 feet wide, with pointed arch and good mouldings (Fig. 378). The groove for the portcullis may be seen in the centre of the archway. Although not so ornate as the gate- way of St. Andre (Fig. 28), still this archway of Tantallon was similar in style, and must have had a correspondingly grand and imposing effect. There was a guard-room on the south side of the vaulted passage, and a straight stair in the north wall leading to the rooms above and to the battlements. Unfortunately the interior of the keep is now so entirely demolished that its arrangements cannot be made out. The curtain walls running north and south from the entrance fall backwards at an angle from the central keep, part of which is projected so as to flank the curtains. These are also strengthened by large towers