argyll-1971/01-212

Transcription

CASTLES, TOWER-HOUSES AND FORTIFICATIONS

No. 314

wall of the chapel was temporarily retained, but the W.
gable-wall was removed to make way for the SW. angle
of the new curtain. Subsequently the S. curtain was
continued eastwards as far as the SE. corner of the
chapel, and the gatehouse was constructed. The original
S. wall of the chapel was in large part retained and
heightened, existing openings being blocked up of
altered, and a substantial outer casing-wall added to
bring the curtain up to a width corresponding to that of
the remaining sections (cf. Fig. 166). Lastly the E. gable-
wall of the chapel was removed, or partially removed,
and the SE. angle-tower erected. The courtyard build-
ings were probably completed about the same time, the
N. wall of the chapel perhaps being retained to form the
inner wall of the S. range.
The courtyard (Pl.59) measures about 33.5m
from N. to S. by 20.5m transversely within walls
ranging in thickness from 1.8m to 2.4m at ground-
floor level. The slight irregularity of outline reflects the
dispositions and alignments of the earlier hall-house
and chapel. The masonry is composed of the same
materials as the hall-house, but the rubble facework
shows certain differences of construction, while the
dressed sandstone rear-arches of the various openings
are characterized by the presence of small socket-holes,
designed to support temporary wooden centering, at
spring-level. These rear-arches are in miost cases
chamfered on both sides, while the window and doorway
openings have broadly-chamfered arrises. A broad
plinth returns round the base of the curtain wall, being
in some quarters single-spayed and in others double-
splayed. In most sectors the upper course, or courses, of
the plinth are of dressed sandstone, but the plinths of the
SE. tower and of the E. sector of the S. curtain are of
rubble. Along the E. curtain, different phases in the
construction of the lower part of the wall are indicated
by two more or less vertical lines of sandstone blocks
which mark changes in the rubble coursing.
There is no visible evidence of the former existence
of outworks, such as a ditch and bank, the earthen
revetment on the S. (and perhaps also that on the W.)
side of the castle being the result of landscaping oper-
ations carried out at the end of the 19th century.1
Excavations carried out in 1966 outside the N. section of
the W. curtain-wall revealed no evidence of outworks
in this sector.2

The West Curtain-Wall and North-West Latrine-
Tower. The W. curtain-wall runs southwards from
a rectangular latrine-tower which adjoins the SW.
angle of the hall-house. This tower is of three storeys,
each of which formerly contained a row of latrines
discharging into a common pit at the lowest level. Each
row of seats was provided with a separate chute, and the
partition walls between the chutes were carried upon arches
of dressed sandstone spanning the full width of the
tower at appropriate levels. All these fittings were removed
when the tower was adapted for use as a dovecot, an
alteration which probably took place at the end of the
18th century. Within the ground floor of the tower there

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may now be seen the stumps of the corbels that carried
the lowest row of seats, while immediately in front of
the corbels a mural slot indicates the former position of
a timber screen. In the rear portion of the tower there
are traces of the arches and partition walls of the two
upper chutes, while an outlet drain for liquid matter
pierces the W. wall at ground level. There is an aumbry
in the S. wall.
At ground-floor and first-floor levels the tower was
entered from the courtyard by means of narrow door-
ways with arch-pointed heads (Pl.60C). The doorway at
first-floor level was probably reached from a timber
gallery which ran along the inner face of the curtain wall
and communicated, at its N. end, with the first floor
apartment of the hall-house by means of an inserted
doorway of which some slight traces may still be seen.
To the S. of the tower doorway there is a small square-
headed window looking on to the courtyard. There are no
openings in the outer walls of the tower at ground-floor
level, but on the first floor crosslet-loopholes (Pl.60B) to
N. and S. command the adjacent sections of the main
castle-wall. The second floor of the tower is incomplete,
the masonry now rising to a maximum height of 10.8m
above ground level

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