argyll-1971/01-205

Transcription

CASTLES, TOWER-HOUSES AND FORTIFICATIONS
No 313
designed solely for decorative effect. The parapet is
crenelated and is carried round each angle of the tower
as an open turret or round, while a fifth round projects
midway along the W. side of the building; the walk is
drained by stone spouts placed at frequent intervals along
its length. The rounds are carried upon corbel-courses
of three members, and each incorporates a triple slot-
machicolation. The parapet is continuous, except at a
point on the W. side of the tower where it is interrupted
by the cap-house of the main stair, and while there is
some evidence to suggest that this cap-house was partially
reconstructed in the 17th century there is none to cor-
roborate MacGibbon and Ross's suggestion 1 that "origin-
ally a corbelled defence.....was continued across in front
of the capehouse, but this seems to have been altered in
the seventeenth century". Had such a feature, in fact,
been designed to extend across the front of the cap-house
an original stair-window (now superseded by a 17th-
century one) would not have been placed at this level.
Within the parapet there rise the crow-stepped gables of
the tower roof, the N. gable carrying a particularly
massive chimney-stack.
The present internal arrangement of the tower is
attributable almost entirely to the late 19th-century
restoration already mentioned, but the salient features of
the original plan are still apparent. In addition,
MacGibbon and Ross's drawings 2 of about 1889 show a
number of features that are not visible today, and this
information has been incorporated in the present survey.
The entrance doorway of the tower is placed at ground-
floor level towards the N. end of the W. wall. The
surround is wrought with multiple cable-moulding and
the lintel incorporates a cable-bordered stone panel
bearing the incised date 1508. Above the lintel a second
cable-bordered panel contains a representation of a
double-headed eagle displayed, surmounted by a galley
sails furled - perhaps a reference to the traditional associa-
tion of the castle with the MacDonald family.3 All these
features, with the possible exception of the heraldic panel,
appear to be of late 19th-century date, the lintel and
rybats of the original entrance-doorway having evidently
been renewed or re-dressed at that time. The doorway
opens on to the foot of the main turnpike-stair and termin-
ates in the cap-house already mentioned. There is some
variation of the treads in the ascent, those of the two
lower flights running in to bisect the newel and those of
the two upper flights running tangentially to the newel.
The stair was originally lit by a series of slit-windows in
the W. wall, but these were blocked up when larger
openings were made alongside them during the 17th-
century alterations.
Immediately within the entrance doorway a hatch in
the floor provides the only means of access to a small
unlit pit-prison, a rectangular chamber measuring
about 3m in length by 1.5m in width. This is one of
the few features on the groun d floor to have escaped
substantial alteration during the late 19th-century
restoration, although the original subdivision of this
storey into two main barrel-vaulted apartments is also

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preserved. The vault of the northern chamber springs
from N. to S., and that of the southern from E. to W.
In the original arrangement both apartments incorpor-
ated entresol floors, the northern one being entered by
means of a doorway from the stair-lobby. The upper
floor of the N. apartment was lit by means of a slit-
window in the E. wall, and to the S. of the window
embrasure there was a mural garderobe, one of a
vertical series in this position, of which a common
discharge-shaft pierced the external E wall of the tower
at a point now indicated only by a shallow projecting
sill some 0.6m above ground level. In the NW. corner
of the apartment a mural service-stair rose to the first
floor, while a second stair, perhaps of timber, presumably
descended against the N. wall to give access to the base-
ment. This lower room appears to have been a well-
chamber, the well itself now surviving as a mural recess
in the E. wall; the shaft of the well has been partly filled
in, the water-level at the date of visit being about 0.3m
below the original floor level of the apartment. The
well-chamber was lit by a slit-window in the W. wall,
while a doorway in the S. wall seems to have provided
the only means of access to the adjacent basement -
apartment in the southern division of the tower. This
latter room, a cellar, was lit by slit-windows in the S.
and W. walls. The entresol floor above it was carried
upon plain stone corbels, most of which were re-
carved as human heads in late Victorian times. The
entresol was lit by a window in the S, wall, and access
from the stair-lobby was probably obtained by means of
a doorway occupying the position of the existing roll-
moulded doorway of the late 19th-century date.
Like the ground floor, the first floor originally
comprised two main divisions, the northern one being a
kitchen and the southern a hall. Each apartment had its
own doorway opening on to the turnpike stair, and
timber screen situated immediately to the N. of the hall
doorway probably served to divide that apartment from
the kitchen. The kitchen retains its original segmental
arched fireplace (pl.55D), though the existing voussoir
mouldings are of Victorian origin; in the E. jamb there is
a brick-lined oven. Nothing can now be seen of the
service-stair in the W. wall, and MacGibbon and Ross's
drawings 4 indicate that this was already sealed off at
first-floor level in 1889. There are some traces of what
may have been a mural chamber in the NW. corner of
the apartment. The hall itself retains no original features,
apart from its widely embrasured window openings;
an 18th-century fireplace-surround in the S. wall is
set within an original opening of very much larger
dimensions.
Originally the second floor also seems to have con-
tained two main apartments. The northern one retains
the massive corbelled lintel of its original fireplace in
the N. wall, the opening itself having been contracted
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1 Cast. and Dom. Arch, iii, 198
2 Ibid., fig.132
3 M'Intosh, Kintyre, 33.
4 Cast. and Dom. Arch., iii, fig.132.

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