Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/561

 RAVENSCRAIG CASTLE 541 THIRD PERIOD above it the third floor and the battlements, probably with a guard-room entering off them. The top story has at a more recent time been altered, and the battlements built solid, and sloped off with a wide coping (Fig. 464). There can scarcely be any doubt as to this being an altera- tion. The crow-stepped gables of the roof look like a late addition, and the sloped-off top of the thick wall of the keep would be quite meaning- less in connection with a defensive keep of the period of Mary of Gueldres, although quite in keeping with the later date when the gables were built, and when defence was no longer an object of serious import- ance. All the floors hei'e and throughout the castle were of timber, except the ground floors, which were vaulted. Each floor is provided with wide window recesses, and good windows looking over the preci- pitous parts of the site, but towards the landward side nothing is visible but solid plain walls with narrow loopholes. At the west end of the keep are the latrines, with shoots over the rock. - D RAVENSGRAIG GASTLE F1FESHIRE D LASTE.RN TOWER Pro. 462. Ravenscraig Castle. Section. The north-east round tower, like the keep, is square towards the court- yard. A vaulted passage rising a few steps leads to the room on the ground flroo, which is 29 feet by 19 feet (Figs. 460 and 462). This room is well lighted with large windows, two of which have deep recesses with seats, and is provided with a garde- robe and small chamber with loophole commanding the S/.KOS entrance. This seems to have been the hall for ordinary use, that in the keep being probably reserved, along with the other chambers therein, as the private apartments of the proprietor. The above passage also gives access to the turnpike leading to the