dumfries-1920/04-094

Transcription

CAERLAVEROCK.] HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION. [CAERLAVEROCK.

floors of wood carried on beams borne on
corbels projecting from the north and south
walls.
On the second floor the general arrange-
ments are similar. An access is provided
through the original north wall to a chamber
beneath the forework, from which the later
portcullises and the drawbridge were worked.
The grooves for the windlasses and beams by
means of which these were hoisted still survive
on the reveals of the small window illuminat-
ing the chamber and in the lateral walls. The
chambers on this floor in the towers have domed
ceilings of stone - the western furnished with
ribs of early 15th-century type, meeting at a
central boss shaped as a shield.
On the third floor there are no rooms in the
towers. Access to the forework is obtained
by an angled passage contrived within the
west wall and proceeding over the haunch of
the vault of the west tower.
The fourth floor, at the level of the parapet
walk, appears to have been renewed when the
rear gallery was built. This structure, within
which the mechanism of the south portcullis
is placed, is entered from the west apartment
in the main building. These apartments com-
municated with rooms which were situated in
the roofs of the towers.
Above the forework is a cap-house two
storeys high, entered from the parapet walk,
which returns along the north façade and the
southward extensions of the lateral walls. It
was also carried across the south wall of the
gatehouse until the later west staircase and the
rear bartizan intervened.
The west drum tower of the base is known as
"Murdoch's" Tower, as therein Murdoch,
Duke of Albany, is said to have been incar-
cerated before his execution at Stirling in
1425. Although of smaller dimensions, it is
evidently contemporaneous with the gate-
house towers. There is only one apartment
in each of the four storeys. The basement
would be used as a lodge for the porters of
the postern, and was entered through the
southmost chamber of a coeval range of
buildings against the west curtain. This
apartment and the two storeys above alone
were retained when the present block on the
west was built. The first and second floors
of the towers were entered from the floor
above this apartment and the third floor

from the parapet walk along the curtain.
These floors were of wood, and have long been
demolished.
The block of building against the west
curtain (fig. 21) was erected towards the end of
the 15th century, replacing an older range in
the same position. The only traces left of
these older buildings are sundry openings in the
curtain now built up and the beam-holes and
corbels for the floor joists of the southmost
apartments. The present range contains two
storeys beneath the wall-head; there are traces
of a garret within the roof, reached from the
first floor by a wheel-stair, now demolished,
at the south-east angle. On the ground floor
there were three apartments, each with its
entrance from the ward, and on the upper
floor two. The windows, with the exception
of one on the first floor, which has been
inserted in the west curtain, look out eastward
to the ward. These have, like the doorways,
moulded jambs and lintels. The first-floor
windows are of considerable size, and were
divided by mullions and transoms. The
wall-head is surmounted by a narrow cornice,
and from this level there rise massive chimney-
stacks terminating in moulded copes; on the
north skew-put is a shield charged with a
[crossed out "bend sinister", replaced with handwritten] saltire.
The fireplaces are of a type common in this
period (fig. 22) ; the jambs consist of three
filleted rolls with hollow interspaces terminat-
ing in moulded bases and capitals following the
contour of the jambs under a high lintel sur-
mounted by a narrow cornice. In one example
the jamb is enriched with a continuous floral
ornament.
There being no internal communication
between the ground and first floors, the latter
was apparently entered from the ward by a
wooden stair at the north end leading to a
fine doorway with moulded jambs and lintel,
now obscured by the later 16th-century stair-
case built between this wing and the gate-
house. This staircase is wide and well lit. It
gave communication from the ground to the
parapet walk and to each of the floors of the
keep through doorways which, like the win-
dows, have jambs and lintels ornamented
with a quirked bead-and-hollow moulding of
the period. The little court formed by this
staircase, the gatehouse, and the curtain, was
at this time provided with galleries, sheltered

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