Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/517

 FARNELL CASTLE 501 FOURTH PERIOD FARNELL CASTLE, FORFARSHIRE. This building is pleasantly situated within a mile of the railway station of the same name, near the Den of Farnell, and is surrounded with fine old trees. It belonged to the See of Brechin, and was a resi- dence of the Bishops. In 1512 Bishop Meldrum calls it " Palatium Nostrum." Bishop Campbell in 1566 disposed of the lands of the bishopric, and the palace seems to have undergone great alterations after that time. It is now a simple oblong building (Fig. 927), three stories in height, with a projecting turret containing the staircase in the south front. There are two rooms on each floor. Some points about the building seem to indicate its ecclesiastical connection, the east gable are rather uncommon, except in ecclesiastical buildings, and the north skew-putts have shields, on one of which is carved the monogram $ (lesus Maria), and on the other the letter M, sur- FIG. 927. Farnell Castle. Plan. The gabled crow-steps on FIG. 928. Farnell Castle. View from the North-East. mounted by a crown. The projecting garde-robes, with flues, are distinctly seen in the view of the north front (Fig. 928), and in the east gable there are two rows of corbels at the level of the floor and ceiling of the top story, on which an overhanging wooden gallery with its roof must have