Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/93

 MUCKRACH CASTLE 77 FOURTH PERIOD handsome staircase, a large hall and private room with five other apart- ments, one of them a room large enough to hold several beds. This is one of the completest and least altered houses of the period with which we are acquainted. MUCKRACH CASTLE, INVERNESS-SHIRE. This keep stands on the top of a steep bank in the pleasant valley of the Dulnain, about four miles south-west of Grantown. It was built in 1598 by the second son of John Grant of Freuchie, and was the original seat of the powerful family of the Grants of Rothiemurchus. The keep itself (Fig. 542) is of very simple design, being a square tower with a round staircase turret at the north-west angle ; but it has at one time had extensive buildings connected with it, and forming a courtyard, as shown by the dotted lines on the plan. These are now only traceable from the green mounds which cover their ruins, with the exception of a round tower at the south-east angle of the enclosing wall. GROUND PLAN FIG. 512. Muckrach Castle. Plans. The basement of the keep is vaulted, and provided with several loop- holes. On the first floor is the hall (21 feet by 19 feet), with windows on three sides, and a garde-robe adjoining the entrance door. Above this there were two floors and attics, the two upper floors being approached by a corkscrew staircase in a turret corbelled out in the angle. The floor over the hall (to which the main staircase ascends) was probably the withdrawing-room. Above this level the staircase tower is corbelled out to the square, so as to provide rooms of suitable form in the upper floors (Fig. 543). The steps of the main staircase are formed of slabs of hard granite or other primitive rocks, very difficult to work into the usual form. The mode in which these steps are supported is peculiar, a rough arch being