Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/432

 FOURTH PERIOD 41 6 BALLINBREICH CASTLE % continued to the line of the west curtain wall, while internally it seems to have been entirely gutted. At the south-west angle, and above the cellar floor, which was not vaulted in the usual way, was the great hall, 46 feet long by 17 feet wide (Fig. 856), with a pointed stone roof, which was built against and concealed the sedilia already described of the earlier keep. The existence of these would not have been known had not this stone roof been in a ruinous condition and almost all fallen down. This is a singular instance of the small respect paid to the works of an earlier generation by their successors. It may however be observed, as so far excusing their obliteration, that the sedilia were not on a level suitable for the new floor. A new seat was constructed immediately under the old at a suitable level, but of a much inferior design (Fig. 853). The buildings along the west curtain were three and four stories in height, reached by two handsome staircases, the whole of considerable magnificence. The workmanship of the masonry is not surpassed in Scotland. The stone of the south staircase, and the castle generally, is of a red sandstone, while the north staircase is of a yellow freestone. The kitchen is against this curtain wall, which was slapped through to make room for its chimney. This is of good dimensions, being about 12 feet by 8 feet, with the sink and drain alongside. The space already referred to at the south-east angle as having been included in the castle by the additions, has a round tower on the south face provided with shot-holes. The whole buildings here were vaulted on the ground floor, and consisted of two stories above ; but, at a still later period, they seem to have been heightened in order to contain an attic floor, the portion added being indicated by the masonry, set against the tall chimney of the east gable, but not bonded into it, as also by the grooves cut for two roofs against the opposite wall of the heightened keep (Fig. 855). The two stories just mentioned also extended over the entrance gateway, and probably contained the port- cullis-rooms. There are remains of buildings outside the east curtain wall between the castle and the ravine already referred to. These are supposed to have been the chapel, but they are in too ruinous a condition to admit of certainty on this point About the beginning of the fourteenth century the barony of Ballin- breich passed, by the marriage of the daughter of Sir Alexander Aber- nethy, to Sir Andrew Leslie of Leslie and Rothes, Aberdeenshire, and it was probably shortly after this date (1312) that the castle was begun. The family held other properties in Fifeshire, and at Leslie, in the centre of the county, they had a residence which, in the course of time, became their principal abode, and Ballinbreich was allowed to fall into ruin. As the Earls of Rothes (to which title the family were raised in the