Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/202

SECOND PERIOD 182 CLACKMANNAN TOWER robes and deep recesses for windows, with stone seats. On the third floor a garderobe is projected on corbels from the wing. (See N.E. view.) In the fifteenth century this accommodation was found to be too limited, and the south wing (hatched on plan) was then added. The entrance to the keep seems then to have been made by a door in the re- entering angle on the first-floor level, with a passage cut through the south wall to the hall. The new wing provided the additional accommodation which was now found requisite, viz., a kitchen on the first floor, a private room on the second floor, adjoining the upper or private hall, and bed- rooms on the upper floors. The fireplace of the private room (Fig. 146) is fine, and, by its style, together with other evidence, fixes the date of this wing towards the end of the fifteenth century. It should also be noticed that there is a wash- hand basin, with a drain to the outside, in the east wall of the hall, a feature which is to be found at Sauchie and other castles of various periods. It is remarkable, and quite unusual, that the wing added should be carried, as in this case, higher than the original tower. The corbels and machicolations of the parapet, with the rounded angles of the addi- tion, are well preserved, and have a fine effect ; and it is worthy of notice that these bold corbels and open machicolations, which are often regarded as archaic features, here belong to the more recent part of the building. A century later still further improvements were considered necessary. The entrance on the first floor was found inconvenient, and to remedy this a new entrance passage, 9 feet in width, was formed through the south wing, and led to a wide straight staircase, which was constructed so as to fill up the space between the wing and the main building. This staircase gives easy access to the doorway on the level of the first floor, and also, at the level of the first landing, to an entresol room in the south wing, which was probably used as a guard-room. The staircase blocks up one of the windows in the kitchen, which was therefore converted into a cupboard. One of the hall windows is also enclosed, but it is allowed to remain as a borrowed light in the staircase. The stair is continued a few steps higher, to a door which opens upon a platform or balcony on the roof of the lower part of the addition. (See view from S.W.) The eastern entrance doorway has a Renaissance arch and entabla- ture, which shew that this work belongs to the seventeenth century. The picturesque belfry on the watch turret is also of this date. The walls enclosing the fore court, with the moat and drawbridge in front, and enclosing walls round the keep, portions of which still exist (see Plan), were also constructed about this time.