Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/339

 CAWDOR CASTLE 323 FOURTH PERIOD former prominent position the gable occupying the whole width of the wall, and forcing the angle turret down beneath it. Over the central or staircase block is placed a vaulted charter-room, and in the roof over the vault there is a small chamber which can only be reached by a passage along several of the gutters. In this hiding- place the notorious Lord Lovat is said to have been concealed after the battle of Culloden. The alterations and additions of the seventeenth century left the previous division of the various courtyards unchanged. The central courtyard still forms the entrance to the castle, with a doorway on each side in the division walls, giving access to the northern and southern courtyards respectively. A small staircase in the northern division wall shows the original access to the parapet walk and battlements of that wall and the eastern wall. But these have been obliterated, and the space occupied with apartments. The entrance gateway and drawbridge (Figs. 769 and 770) no doubt occupy the original site, but they have been entirely remodelled in the seventeenth century. The details of the belfry specially mark that period. Still the whole arrangement conveys an excellent idea of the appearance of the fifteenth-century castle, of which the present erections form a happy reminiscence. The iron-grated gate of two leaves, which closes the entrance portal, is said to have been brought from Lochindorb Castle. The latter was ordered to be demolished after the fall of Archibald Douglas in 1455. King James n. intrusted this work to the Thane of Cawdor, who thought it not beneath his dignity to appropriate the iron gates for his own castle. (See The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, by Cosmo Innes.) The extended apartments of the seventeenth century contain the usual large hall or dining-room, with the private room adjoining, the withdrawing-room and numerous bedrooms on the upper floors. The carved mantlepieces of some of these apartments show that they belong to the period of the restoration. They are all in a late Renais- sance style, and contain some quaint work, with dates towards the end of the seventeenth century. Since that time the castle has undergone considerable additions and alterations. Nearly the whole of the southern courtyard is modern, and the upper part of the building adjoining the east wall is hew. The castle is still one of the residences of the Earl of Cawdor, the representative of the ancient family of the Campbells of Cawdor. It is maintained in admirable repair, and the recent additions are all in good keeping with the ancient fabric.