Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/109

DUNSTAFFNAGE CASTLE FIRST PERIOD curtain. In the south and west curtains there are mural chambers, or large recesses with long loops widely splayed to the inside. The chamber in the semi-round south-west tower and the one adjoin- ing in the south wall were enclosed to the courtyard, the doors opening inwards. The wall recesses are all a few feet above the courtyard, and have been enclosed, the base of the enclosing screen still existing, as shown on the plan, all along the west curtain. It is, however, doubtful if this enclosing wall is original. The base of a similar enclosing wall or screen exists along the east curtain also. FIG. 64. Dtmstaft'nage Castle. Plan of Battlements. The oblong building at the entrance is mostly in the style of the six- teenth or seventeenth century. It is four stories high, with a low base- ment floor, having two squint shot-holes to the entrance passage. The first floor was reached by an outside stair along the north wall, the second by a wheel stair in the curtain, and from thence by a projecting corkscrew to the top. There is access from one of the floors to the battlement walk. At the west gable of this building, and between the entrance to the courtyard and the south curtain, and of later date than the latter, there is a mass of ruined masonry, the only probable explanation of which is that it supported another stair to the battlement walk. The battlements (Fig. 64), which are in a ruinous state, have evidentlv