Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/582

 THIRD PERIOD 562 ARBROATH ABBEY ings, were surrounded with a strong wall of enceinte strengthened with towers. At Arbroath one of these towers, at the north-west angle of the enclosure, shown on the drawing, is still preserved. It is 24 feet square by 70 feet in height, and still retains the great corbels which carried the parapet, and between which were formed the machicolations by means of which the enemy could be assailed. Between the tower and the abbey gateway there is a considerable portion of the original wall of enceinte strengthened with buttresses. The gateway itself is probably the finest specimen of that class of build- ing in Scotland. The upper portion is particularly interesting. The great corbels indi- cate the mode in which the defences of the parapet were continued over the archway when required. In time of peace these corbels and the window above would remain bare and open as they now are, but when it became necessary to prepare for a siege the corbels would become the foundation on which a strong wooden hoarding would be raised for the defence of the gateway. The style of the arches, mouldings, and other details, is quite ecclesi- astical, and dates about the end of the fifteenth century. We shall close our account of the Castles and Domestic Buildings of the Third Period with a description of DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, KINOARDINESHIRE. This castle contains within its enceinte examples of the various changes which took place in the disposition of the buildings and defences, as well as in the domestic arrangements of these edifices from the fifteenth till the seventeenth century. It will thus form a natural conclusion to the Third Period, and an introduction to the Fourth or latest Period of our Domestic Architecture. Dunnottar Castle is situated about one mile south from Stonehaven, and stands on the platform of an isolated rock detached from the general precipitous seaboard of the district, and washed nearly all round by the German Ocean. The area of the site is about three and a half acres in extent, and is naturally of great strength, being surrounded with perpendicular rocks rising from the sea to a height of 160 feet, except at the narrow strip of land on the level of the sea-shore, by which it is joined to the mainland. The earliest record of any buildings on this rock states that at the end of the thirteenth century it was occupied by the parish church. At that time Sir William Keith is said to have erected a tower on the rock, and to have been excommunicated by the Bishop of St. Andrews for the offence of building on sacred ground. On referring the case to