stirling-1963-vol-1/05_240

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No.192

are thought to have formed part of the furnishings of the Castle. ¹

THE GREAT HALL. The Great Hall of Stirling (cf.
p. 42 and Figs. 77, 78, 79), though now sadly mutilated
without and altered almost beyond recognition within,
remains the most important building of its class in
Scotland, as it was once the most splendid. Although
approximately contemporary with the Great Halls at

[Handwritten note in margin] ?1430

Linlithgow Palace ² and Edinburgh Castle, ³ the Hall at
Stirling is larger than either of these and differs from
them in standing detached. ⁴ The Great Hall seems to
have been completed soon after 1500 (cf. p. 183), and
although conceived in the mediaeval tradition the design
exhibits traces of Renaissance influence, particularly in
its details. The first important alteration to the fabric
probably took place in the middle of the 16th century,
when a vaulted transe with a gallery above it was added
to the W. and N. sides of the building. At about the
same time a bridge was erected at the SW. angle to give
access from the Great Hall to the King's Presence
Chamber in the newly completed Palace. More extensive
alterations were planned in 1709-10, but were not
carried out in their entirety; nevertheless an upper floor
was inserted, at least in the N. half of the Hall (cf. p. 189).
The gallery above the transe on the W. side of the Hall
was removed some time during the 18th century. The
building assumed its present form at about the end of
the 18th century when it was converted into barracks. In
this alteration the Hall itself was divided into two storeys
and an attic, each floor containing four large barrack-
rooms and two staircases, while additional partition-
walls were inserted on the ground floor to take the weight
of the new staircases above. The fine timber roof was
replaced, and any carved details or painted decoration
that survived were hidden beneath new plaster. The
windows, apart from those in the gables, were ruthlessly
destroyed and replaced by others strictly utilitarian in
appearance. Old doorways were blocked up and new
ones opened out. The parapets were removed, together
with the open rounds that had graced the externals corners,
and the high roof, shorn of the badges on the ridging
(Pls. 57, 58, 88 A), was extended to the wall-face. The
sweep of the roof was interrupted by dormer windows
and by the chimney flues of the fireplaces introduced
into the barrack-rooms. Finally, and perhaps at a slightly
later date, the bridge leading from the SW. angle of the
Hall to the adjacent Palace was rebuilt.

Exterior. The Great Hall is rectangular on plan and
lies approximately N. and S.; it measures 138 ft. in
length by 46 ft. 9 in. in width over all, and at the S. or
dais end bay-windows project on either side to a distance
of 6 ft. on the E. and about 5 ft. 6 in. on the W. The
masonry is largely rubble, but there is also some ashlar
work, most of it in the upper part of the walls. The
principal façade faces W. and now forms the E. boundary
of the Upper Square. The original design may best be
appreciated by a study of Fig. 80, which is a reconstructed
drawing of the original elevation, based on the evidence
now available. For the purpose of this drawing it has
been assumed that in the original arrangement a timber
gallery was intended to run along the greater part of the
W. wall, giving access by a stair at its N. end to the main
entrance-doorway at first-floor level. Whether or not this
gallery was ever erected is hard to say, but certainly the
vaulted transe that now masks the ground floor, and the
gallery above it, now removed, were not original features
but additions of about the middle of the 16th century.
The evidence bearing on the erection both of the original
gallery and of the structure that replace it is discussed
in more detail on p. 210. On the ground floor there were
doorways giving access to the cellars beneath the Hall,
while above, four pairs of segmental-headed windows,
similar to those that survive in the S. gable, lit the Hall
itself. Between each pair of windows a statuette stood
within a canopied niche. Towards the S. end of the
façade the bay-window rose to light the dais, its walls
finishing in a corbelled parapet at the external angles of
which there were open rounds; the wall-head of the
remainder of the façade was treated in a similar fashion,
and there were rounds at the NW. and SW. angles.
Within the round at the NW. angle a turnpike stair rose
above the parapet to finish in a conical roof. ⁵
The W. wall (Pl. 87 A) is now exposed to its full
height only beyond the S. end of the transe, that is to
say from the bay-window to the SW, angle. To the S.
of the bay-window the lower part of the wall was refaced
when the bridge between the Hall and the Palace was
rebuilt, an alteration which probably took place in the
19th century. An original doorway remains at ground-
floor level and gives access to a cellar within, but it is now
masked by the later masonry. Above the present bridge
the roof raggle of its predecessor of about 1540-2 may
be seen in the masonry. A string-course, enriched with
paterae, returns round the W. and S. sides of the bay-
window between ground- and first-floor levels. Below
the window an original doorway to the N. has been
replaced by a later one situated a little further S. The
old doorway, which formerly gave access to the cellars at this
end of the building, has a square hood-mould with stops,
each of which is carved with a human figure, now much
worn. The upper part of the bay-window, that is, above
the string-course, has angle-shafts, the S. one rising from
the string while the N. one rises from the level of the
transoms. Both shafts have moulded capitals. On the W.
side of the bay there is a central pier with a moulded
base and capital, the latter surmounted by a niche; the
pier originally incorporated a central shaft, the capital
of which no doubt supported a statue in the niche above.
The statue has now disappeared and both shaft and

1 P.S.A.S., lviii (1923-4), 300 f.
2 Inventory of Midlothian and West Lothian, No. 356.
3 Inventory of the City of Edinburgh, No. 1.
4 There may, perhaps, have been a free-standing Great Hall
at Falkland Palace; so much at least is suggested by the outlines
of the foundations of the N. quarter, now demolished. The
proportions of this building, so far as they can be ascertained,
resemble those of the Hall at Stirling (Inventory of Fife, Kinross
and Clackmannan, No. 238, fig. 272.)
5 As shown on Slezer's drawing, cf. Pl. 58.

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