Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/22

FOURTH PERIOD 6 PLANS A similar arrangement is adopted 011 a much larger scale at Drochil Castle, Peeblesshire, built by Regent Morton in 1581. Notland Castle, Westray, Orkney, presents still another modification of the keep, the towers at the diagonally opposite corners being square,, and having the staircase in one and the private rooms in the other, an arrangement very commonly adopted. Perhaps the largest and finest example of this form of plan is Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire, where the tower at one angle is square and that at the other round. The number of examples of this form of plan is very large, and it would greatly facilitate references and descriptions if it received a short name. As one form of plan is designated the L plan, it has occurred to us that the form we are now considering might equally appropriately be called the Z plan. We have accordingly adopted this nomenclature for convenience in the succeeding pages. A somewhat similar idea to that of the Z plan is sometimes carried out in the castles of the period built round a courtyard, where we occasionally find a large square tower at one external angle, and a circular one at another, as, for instance, at Tolquhan. (Fourth.) Another modification of the keep plan adopted at this period is that of a simple oblong keep or main house, with a square tower attached to and overlapping one angle in such a way that the main building is flanked on two sides by the tower, and the tower is also flanked on two sides by the main building. These castles form in fact a double tower. Of this arrangement Burgie and Blervie Castles in Morayshire are good examples, although in both little remains of the main building, and the tower only has been preserved. The tower was carried higher than the roof of the main building, so as to have battle- ments all round for defence, and also to serve as a watch-turret. All the above forms of plans are clearly the direct lineal descendants of the original Norman keep, while they show modifications naturally arising from the requirements of the time and place. But through all these modifications the idea of the old quadrilateral tower is preserved as the main body of the building, and the new features are merely adjuncts to it. Probably nowhere has this plan been so thoroughly worked out and persistently adhered to as in Scotland, and certainly there cannot be a question as to the native development of these varia- tions of the original keep. These plans are peculiarly Scottish, and we believe it would be difficult, and probably impossible, to find similar plans in France or any- where else.