Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/71

 CAKEMUIR CASTLE 55 FOURTH PERIOD fully situated on the south bank of the Dee, about six miles above Ballater, and two miles below Balmoral. The means of access from the north bank is by a picturesque con- trivance called a " rope and cradle " bridge, the bridge being really a rope from which the cradle or basket containing the passenger is sus- pended, and along which it runs. The castle has been much altered and added to, but it still retains the original tower which formed the nucleus of the whole (Fig. 520), and which, with its rounded angles, its crow-stepped gables, and its somewhat elaborately corbelled angle turret, is a good and picturesque example of a sixteenth-century manor-house in Aberdeenshire. CAKEMUIR CASTLE, MIDLOTHIAN. This tower is situated in a retired valley by the side of a small stream called the Cakemuir Water, about fourteen miles south-east from Edinburgh, and one mile from Tynehead Station. Its situation is very pleasant, having an extensive view down the valley towards the east, while on all other sides it is shut in and sheltered. The immediate s/- //r TI FIG. 521. Cakemuir Castle. Plan of Battlements. neighbourhood is a dreary, monotonous upland country, so that it is with a feeling of pleased surprise that the traveller first sees Cakemuir. The building measures on the battlements 31 feet 7 inches by 25 feet 9 inches, with a projecting staircase at the north-west corner (Fig. 521), circular on