Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/280

 FOURTH PERIOD 264 BLERVIE CASTLE contained a bedroom on each floor, and was carried higher than the central block, and crowned with a parapet for defence (Fig. 719). The main house has been removed all but the wall next the tower, which contains the fireplace of the hall (Fig. 720). The tower, which no doubt formerly stood at the angle dia- gonally opposite that still exist- ing, has also entirely disappeared. The circular angle turret for the staircase is corbelled out in the inner angle as at Burgie, and gives access to all the rooms in and to the platform on the top of the tower. The battlement had the usual angle bartizans, but was less ornamental than that of Burgie, and the parapet is gone. Blervie stands on the top of a hill, and commands the pass through which the Highland Railway runs to Grantowii. The site seems to have been occu- pied as a fortress from early times. In the Exchequer Rolls (vol. i. p. xlvi) we find an account by Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, for repairing FIG. 719. Blervie Castle. View from the South-West. .. and garrisoning the royal castle of Blervie or Ulerin in anticipation of Haco's invasion. Blervie afterwards passed into the hands of the Dunbars, by BASEMENT PLAN FIG. 720. Blervie Castle. Plans. whom the existing building was probably erected in the sixteenth century.