Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/157

TARBERT CASTLE 137 FIRST PERIOD to 20 feet, and in this space the castle buildings have apparently stood. There are grass-covered traces of foundations against the north-east and south-east curtains, not however extending quite across the 1 8-feet space. At the inside angle of the north corner there has been a building of some kind about 20 feet square, with the walls seemingly brought up from a depth below the natural surface. This may have contained a well in the under floor, or a tank or reservoir for water, such as are sometimes found in the earlier hill forts. CASTLE FIG. 108. Tarbert Castle. Plan The centre of the castle which in ordinary cases would be called the courtyard, is here the natural sloping face of the hill-side, with several large rugged rocks projecting in confused masses through the ground. No attempt has been made to alter its surface by artificial means, but the space within the outer and inner walls (the 1 8-feet space) has been raised so as to be about level from north-east to south-west, with a fall to the north-west corner. The making-up, as seen on the north-east side, has