stirling-1963-vol-1/05_231

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
chamfered doorway into the upper of the two surviving
storeys. This is divided into three apartments, but many
of the original internal features have been obscured by
the remodelling of the tower in the 18th century and by
restoration undertaken by the Ministry of Works. Thus
the W. wall has been rebuilt from a height of 5 ft. 3 in.
above floor level and the N. and E. walls from a height
of 3 ft. 3 in. above floor level. The outer room is a kitchen
and contains the remains of a large kitchen-fireplace in
the N. wall. The recess in the W. jamb of the fireplace
is a restoration, but the sink in the E. jamb is original.
In the E. wall there was a window with seats in the jambs,
but the window was removed above sill level when the
wall was rebuilt and thinned in the 18th century. To the
S. of the window embrasure there is an aumbry. The S.
wall of the kitchen is supported on a relieving arch,
probably because it does not stand upon the partition
wall of the floor below; it has been thickened except at
the W. end, where there is a service hatch and a doorway.
This doorway opens into a small lobby situated in the
SW. corner of the tower. On the W. of this there is a
doorway opening on to a turnpike stair, to be presently
described; there is a loop of inverted keyhole shape in
the W. wall. On the S. there is a window, and on the E.
a doorway having a chamfered surround admits to the
third compartment, situated at the SE. corner of the
tower. This contains the remains of a fireplace in the E.
wall and an original window in the S. wall. In the SE.
angle there is a garderobe, now partly blocked, but lit
by two inserted windows on the S.
The staircase on the W. side of the tower is greatly
reduced in height, but there are still vestiges of ten steps
which led upwards to a floor now missing. The lowest
flight of the turnpike is complete, and the stair is spacious
with a fairly heavy newel. On the N., near the present
stair-head, there may be seen a filled-up doorway; this
is not original, but was inserted to give access to an
apartment, now perhaps destroyed, which probably
ran W. from the Elphinstone Tower, parallel to the
Forework. The steps continue past this doorway and
give entry to the outer of two intercommunicating cellars.
Both have very flat irregular vaults springing from N. to
S. The outer cellar has a locker on the E. and a window
to the S. A low, chamfered doorway admits to the inner
cellar. This has a locker in the E. wall and a window in
the N. wall covering the NE. curtain of the Castle. At
the NW. corner, where there is an outcrop of rock, there
is a chamfered doorway, now blocked, which presumably
led into an undercroft on the W., now destroyed or
unexplored. Alternatively this doorway, together with
the one opening off the turnpike, already described, may
have communicated with an extension of the kitchen
range situated below the Grand Battery (cf. pp. 215 f.).
The Prince's Tower (Figs. 73, 74, 75) rises to a
height of four storeys and contains a single apartment
on each floor; communication was originally provided
by a turnpike stair in the NW. angle of the tower, but
this arrangement was subsequently modified. The tower
seems originally to have been free-standing on the W.
except on the ground floor, where there was a single-
storeyed structure, perhaps supporting a terrace or walk
above (cf. p. 199). At some time in the latter part of the
16th century, or in the 17th century, this structure was
remodelled and heightened to form an outshot of three
storeys which stood in the re-entrant angle of the W.
wall of the Prince's Tower and the adjoining portion of
the S. wall of the Palace. At this period openings were
contrived in the W. wall of the tower to give access to this
building, and these openings, now blocked up or turned
into windows, may still be seen in the masonry although
the outshot itself was demolished at some time after
1791 ¹ The turnpike stair in the Prince's Tower is now
entered from a doorway opening off the transe that
runs beneath the S. quarter of the Palace. Immediately
to the E. of this door another leads into the apartment
that occupies the ground floor of the tower. This contains
no features of interest; the window in the S. wall is an
insertion or the enlargement of an older window. Above,
there is a room formerly reached from the turnpike stair
but now entered by an inserted doorway in the E. wall,
which gives access from the Upper Terrace. Both the
fireplace on the N. and the window on the S. are later
insertions or alterations; on the W. there is a cupboard,
which was at one time a doorway giving access to the
outshot. Within the turnpike stair at about this level a
small window, now blocked, looks N., indicating that
before the erection of the Palace in 1540-2 the Prince's
Tower was free-standing to the N. at this level and above.
The room on the second floor is now reached from the
Upper Terrace by a stair, through the doorway described
on p. 195. The apartment itself is lofty; the staircase
projects into the NW. corner but the original access-
doorway is blocked up. On the S. there is an original
window and a modern fireplace. The window facing E.
on the S. side of the present entrance is secondary, as
is the one in the W. wall; the cupboard in the same wall
represents an original window now built up. The top
floor of the tower, originally reached from the turnpike,
is now entered from the top floor of the Palace and
is wholly modern in its arrangement. Two original
windows in the S. wall have been altered, the W. one
now being a door giving access to the parapet and the
E. one having been replaced by a larger window. The
stair at the NW. corner continues to the parapet walk
of the tower and gives access to the roofs of both tower
and Palace.

THE PALACE (cf. pp. 42 f. and Figs. 73, 74, 75). Archi-
tecturally, this is not only the most imposing building
in the Castle, but is also one of the finest Renaissance
buildings in Scotland. It has affinities with the generally
contemporary palaces of Linlithgow and Falkland, and
also with the older version of Holyrood; in a sense it may
be considered their climax. As at Linlithgow, the Palace
of Stirling is quadrangular, and it has corridors or
galleries on two sides, after the fashion of Falkland and
Linlithgow. Its W. side or "quarter" has, however, been

1 It appears in a sketch published in that year (Grose, F.,
The Antiquities of Scotland, ii, 236).

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