Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/570

 THIRD PERIOD 550 MORTON CASTLE each of them, the evident use of this floor for stores and kitchen offices, the mullioned windows of the hall (although all are arched at Rait, and only one at Morton), the door to the hall on the first floor level in all three (like the usual door in the ordinary keeps), are all features which either serve to connect these edifices with each other, or to show that, although of a larger and more ornate character than the castles usually erected at the time, they still resemble them in general features. Judging from all the details available, there seems to be almost no doubt that these three buildings all belong to the first half of the fifteenth century. At that period plans with quadrangles were being adopted, and these plans are modifications which combine some of the features newly introduced with those of the ordinary keep plan, so general during the preceding century. They are, in short, intermediate between the two designs of plan (the square keep and the courtyard plan), and in this respect remind us of the plans of Hermitage and Crookston. They have the enlarged keep of the "courtyard plan" without the extended buildings surrounding the courtyard. There is almost no record of the history of Morton Castle. The site is said to have been occupied by a castle from an early period. Dunegal, the Lord of Nithsdale in the twelfth century, is supposed to have had a stronghold here. The barony belonged to Thomas Randolph, Bruce's nephew and friend, in the fourteenth century. It afterwards passed by marriage to the Earl of March, and finally came into the possession of the Douglases. In 1396 the barony was in the hands of James Douglas, Earl of Morton, who probably took his title from this castle. In 1459 it was disjoined from the main branch of the Douglases of Dalkeith, Earls of Morton, and passed to a cadet branch of the family, and was subsequently acquired by the Dukes of Queens- berry, and is still the property of their successors, the Dukes of Buc- cleuch. The cottages in front of the castle, shown in Grose's view, are now removed. The castle is said to have been occupied till the beginning of the eighteenth century (see Dr. Ramage's Dmmlanrig and the Douglases}. TULLYALLAN CASTLE, PERTHSHIRE. This mansion is situated in a detached portion of Perthshire, near Kincardine on the Forth. It belonged formerly to the family of the Black- adders, but almost nothing seems to be known of its history. It has been designed as a pleasant residence rather than a place of strength, and thus shows more elegance and taste in its architecture than is usual in the great but gloomy castles of the time. This is well illustrated by the fine vaulting of the ground floor (Fig. 468), which