Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/83

 CORGARFF CASTLE 67 FOURTH PERIOD the first floor, in the same position as the present one. It is now approached by an open stone staircase and a porch, but no doubt originally the access was by a ladder. The original staircase to the upper floors was in the south-east angle, above which a gabled turret is still carried up (Fig. 533). A square wooden staircase has now been substituted. The hall was no doubt on the first floor, with bedrooms above, but the interior is now cut up into small houses for agricultural labourers. FIG. 533. Corgarff Castle. View from the South-East. Two solitary corbels remain to indicate where the parapet walk originally was. In 1746 the Government purchased the castle from Forbes of Skellater, and kept fifteen to twenty men stationed in it. This would form an outpost from Mar Castle, one of the principal garrisons for keeping the Highlanders in order. At the above date exten- sive alterations were made upon it to suit it for its purpose. A wing of one story was added at each end, probably as officers' quarters, while the upper floors of the keep were converted into barracks for the troops. An enclosing wall was also at the same time run round the whole, provided with salients for the defence of the flanks, and all well loop- holed, in the same manner as the enclosing wall at Mar Castle. This is perhaps the most interesting point about this lonely castle, which thus, along with a few others, brings the history of fortified houses in Scotland down to so recent a date as the middle of the last century.