east-lothian-1924/05-172

Transcription

PRESTONKIRK.] -- INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. -- [PRESTONKIRK.

bank, and about 30 feet east of the mid tower
a postern stair, which is canted towards the
west and has a ribbed and vaulted roof, leads
from the enceinte by a straight flight to a
landing some 15 feet above the water level.
An isolated pier 5 feet out from the landing
was intended to support the edge of a draw-
bridge reached from a moveable ladder. The
arch of the staircase is low and obtusely
pointed ; the ribs are chamfered. The masonry
of the mid tower, where it has not been re-
built, is of large cubical blocks of reddish
freestone ashlar diagonally axed, but the
dressings and mouldings have been polished.
The masonry of the curtain wall east of this
tower is similar, and similar work can be traced
in the remaining portion of this curtain and
in the north-west tower, although the tower
and the latter portion of the curtain have been
largely reconstructed. A heavy basement
[marginal note]
This basement
course is returned
along the w.side
of the tower : the
wall w. of this,
embodied in
later buil-
ing, has been
moved forward.
course returns along the north wall of the mid
tower and probably continued along the
curtain. The masonry of the curtains on the
south and west is dissimilar and inferior,
betokening a later period of building.

The north-west tower is quadrangular. It
has contained five storeys beneath the wall
head ; the outer walls still stand, although in
a ruinous state, for a height of 40 to 50 feet,
but the east wall, which faces the ward and
in which the entrance would be situ-
ated, is fragmentary. The basement storey
contains two apartments. The larger, to the
south, measures 15 1/2 feet by 18 3/4 feet. It has
had a vaulted ceiling, below which lay an
entresol floor. The smaller chamber 14 feet
by 6 1/4 feet, which was probably a " pit,"
or prison (fig. 134) still retains its vaulted
ceiling, in which there is a hatch, but this has
been filled in. It is lit by two narrow apertures
in the north and west walls ; the northern has
a soil outlet in its sill, the other may be more
correctly described as a ventilation flue, as the
inner sill is at a considerably lower level than
the daylight. A narrow bench returns along the
lateral walls. A vice or wheel-stair, of which
traces can still be seen, occupied the north-east
angle. The two H-shaped apertures for cross-
bow fire in the north wall of this staircase are
noteworthy. These are of the latter half of the
14th century. The fireplaces in the south wall
of the tower on the upper floors have a bowtell

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with flanking hollows wrought on jambs and
lintel ; the lintel is joggle jointed.
The large tower midway along the north
curtain is incomplete in that the south and the
greater portion of the east wall are missing.
The remaining walls still stand to a height of
20 feet above the present level of the enceinte
with a total height of some 40 feet above the
foundation. There appears to be at least one
storey beneath the present level of the enceinte
filled in with debris and inaccessible. At what
is assumed as the first floor level there is a
narrow lancet light in the north gable with
small square recesses in the rectangular scoin-
sons ; the scoinson arch is obtusely pointed
and has a rib. Externally, below this
window, there is

[illustration inserted]
FIG. 134.-Pit, Hailes Castle
(No. 147).

seen a very beautiful
little lancet with a
trefoiled head. In
the west wall, at first
floor level, there are a
garderobe and the
remnants of a fire-
place. Vestiges of
two floors are visible
above this level, the
lower of which has
a mural passage and garderobe with soil
flue in the north wall and a window in the west
wall similar to the north window of the first
floor. The exterior of the north gable is
divided into two tiers by a string-course, which
returns above the head of the window men-
tioned as on the level of the enceinte ; this
string has also returned along the west wall
and has been stepped, but when the adjoining
later building was erected, the string-course
was cleared off flush with the wall surface.
The masonry below the string-course is of
coursed ashlar and above of uncoursed rubble
with ashlar dressings, denoting a reconstruction.
There are four windows in the gable, one on
each of the upper storeys ; these are lancet
and three have obtusely pointed heads, the
fourth being the little lancet with a cusped
trefolied head which has already been men-
tioned.
The north curtain and the towers are coeval
and date from c. 13th century, but, while the
mid tower and that portion of the curtain
which lies eastwards of it are comparatively

Transcriber's notes

The feint note at the top of the page is the reverse impression of the marginal note on the next page.