Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/459

SPYNIE CASTLE 439 THIRD PERIOD This block contains an archway leading to a small courtyard between the new buildings and the ancient towers at the south-west angle. Walls enclosing an outer courtyard have been erected, probably in the seventeenth century. A circu- lar arched gateway and a fine circular dovecot, with some fragments of the walls, are still preserved on the north-east side. These are not shown on the plan, being at a consider- able distance away. They are late erections, PIG. 383. Dirleton Castle. Section through Kitchen. probably of the seventeenth century or end of the sixteenth.- Dirleton has been a ruin since it was battered by Monck'in 1650. SPYNIE PALACE, MORAYSHIRE. This has been one of the finest of our fifteenth-century castles. Spynie was the original seat of the Cathedral of Moray, but it was removed to Elgin as a more suitable situation by a Bull of the Pope in 1224. The chief palace of the Bishops of Moray, however, remained at Spynie, which is about 2j miles north from Elgin. The present building consists of a large strong keep, with other buildings surrounding an extensive courtyard. Such keeps were frequently erected in connection with monasteries and other ecclesi- astical foundations, as a place of security for the occupants and their treasures in troublous times. The palace is situated on a rising ground which was formerly close to the loch of Spynie, but the loch has now almost entirely disappeared, the water having been drained away. The keep (Fig. 384) is placed at the south-west corner of the palace. It is 62 feet 5 inches from north to south, and 44 feet 3 inches from east to west. The walls are 10 feet 6 inches thick, and the height of the corbels which carried the battlements is 70 feet. The tower contained six stories (section, Fig. 385), the basement and the top story but one being vaulted, and the intermediate floors of wood.