Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/43

 HALLBAR TOWER FOURTH PERIOD This is an excellent specimen of the smaller keeps which continued to be erected as late as the seventeenth century, although this one may have been built somewhat earlier. But it has several peculiar features. Thus the entrance door is on the ground level, and the staircase is carried up in the thickness of the wall, and winds round the tower. On the first floor this winding stair has a landing, from which one door enters the hall, and an outer door opposite it gives access to the battlements of the courtyard wall, which no doubt existed formerly. One jamb of the doorway into the courtyard still remains on the ground floor (Fig. FIG. 494. Hallbar Tower. View from the North-East. On the second floor the passage of the stair through the wall is inter- rupted by the hall chimney, and the access to the upper flight is obtained by passing through the room. The arrangements at the top