Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/562

 THIRD PERIOD 542 upper floors and battlements of this wing, as well as to the battlements behind the curtain over the entrance passage and the curtain cellars (Fig. 462). In the thickness of the east wall of the vaulted passage a straight stair leads down to the first floor below the hall, and continues in almost total darkness straight down to the well-room on the second floor. The latter is a lofty vaulted apartment partly cut out of the rock, and lighted by two long slits. The well, about 6 feet in diameter, is, as usual, filled up. In order to keep the chamber dry a drain is placed at the floor level, which is several feet above the ground outside. The walls, both of the keep and the north-east tower, have a thick- ness of 14 feet towards the north or exposed side of the castle. They have no doubt been made of this extraordinary thickness for the purpose of resisting artillery, which was then beginning to be employed. The guns, however, were of small calibre, as may be observed from the size of the horizontal embrasures in the walls and battlements. The battle- ments on the eastern round tower are of considerable breadth. Owing to the thickness of the walls a space of about 10 feet in width has been obtained, without the necessity for projecting the parapets. These are carried up flush with the face of the wall, and where they are entire on the circular tower, they are pierced with narrow upright loops and horizontal splayed gun-holes alternately. The parapet of the keep was probably finished in the same way originally, or it may have had a boldly corbelled and machicolated parapet like the towers of Caerlaverock, or a parapet pierced with sloping gun-holes like the south-east tower at Craignethan. There appears to have been an open paved platform over the entrance passage, and the cellars on each side of it, while the curtain is carried up about 10 feet high and 12 feet thick as a screen wall, and is pierced with two horizontal embrasures for guns. These embrasures are reached from the in- terior by wide-arched and splayed recesses like the ingoings of a window, each recess having a small ambry for ammunition. There is also in each recess, and below the level of the embrasures (where shown on Plan, Fig. 460), a slot-hole on each side FIG. 463. Ravenscraig Castle. some 5 or 6 inches square, and about 15 deep. Entrance Doorway. These were in all probability intended to receive the ends of the bars to which the guns were attached to prevent their recoil, as was done in the old men-of-war ships. The top of the curtain wall is ornamented on the outside with a row of shallow corbels (Fig. 46' 1), having a moulding above, and was probably finished with a high parapet and a broad parapet walk. The height and strength of the battlements of this curtain may be explained by the circumstance that the ground in front of the curtain and round towers rises rapidly from the ditch, and