Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/567

MORTON CASTLE 547 THIRD PERIOD drawbridge, while part would be inside and would form a portion of the passage. The drawbridge of the keep of the great castle of Coucy was constructed in this way. Such an arrangement as this would account for the carefully built pit, part of which still remains. It is not easy to imagine for what other purpose this pit could have been intended. The existing walls to the south of the gateway, which are about 2 to 3 feet high, have probably been constructed at a more recent date to fill the ditch and form a more convenient access, but the drawbridge with the pit below have apparently still been preserved and used. On the right hand on entering the gateway there can yet be traced the springing stones of the ribs of the depressed vaulting which covered the entrance passage, as far at least as the towers extend northwards. These ribs are shown by dotted lines on the plan. The passage beyond this may have been open, forming a small court- yard, and probably from this courtyard a staircase ascended to the first floor of the building, and also to the battlements which crowned the wall of enceinte, which no doubt surrounded the castle on the north and north-west in the position shown on the plan, where the line of the foundations can still be distinctly traced. The' eastern wall seems, for additional security, to have been carried down the steep bank to the loch. A similar arrangement occurs at Yester Castle. The north wall encloses a courtyard, and appears to have contained the stable offices (Fig. 466). FIG. 466. Morton Castle. View from the North-West. The corbels for the wall-plate of the lean-to roof, with weather-table above, still remain, and there were no windows in the north wall except near the east and west ends, and one at a high level in the centre, so as