Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/328

FOURTH PERIOD 312 - GIRNIGOE CASTLE reached from the upper floor by a door (Fig. 764). There was greater necessity for defence on this side, as the sea between the two parallel promontories already described does not run up the goe quite so far as the keep. Across the narrow gorge of the goe, and at a little distance above high-water mark., there was probably a wall (see principal Plan) between the promontories so as to defend the castle from attack by sea. This, at all events, seems to be the explanation of the rybats seen so conspicuously at the base of the keep in the south-east view. These rybats are evidently those of a doorway through the above wall at a height of 10 or 12 feet above the ground. The whole of these arrange- ments for defence are very similar to those illustrated on the south side of Craigmillar Castle. There is one floor above the hall in the keep, and two floors above the hall level in the wing, with a private stair in the north-east corner of the wing communicating with them. The rock extends eastward from the keep for about 170 feet at a uniform level, and is surrounded with walls having buildings on the inside with a courtyard or passage between them. Some of these buildings next the keep have been two stories high, but they are all very ruinous, and cannot be further described. The point of the rock, extending 40 feet further, is at a level of about ten feet lower than the courtyard, and is also enclosed. In the centre of this lower platform a hatchway with steps leads down to a small apartment, partly built and partly cut out of the rock, having a shoot or opening through the north side into the sea. Part of the buildings and walls just referred to have been erected at about the same time as the keep, and other parts at a subsequent date, clay being used in the latter instead of mortar. On the remaining portion of the rock lying on the landward side of the ditch or moat, and covering the site to its full extent, a new castle, called Castle Sinclair, was erected at a subsequent period. The prin- cipal entrance from the land side was by a moveable bridge at the west end, over the outer ditch, and through a portcullised and vaulted pend or passage, 43 feet long by 5 feet wide, which led into the court- yard. This castle is unfortunately so ruinous that it is impossible to assign to the various parts their definite purposes, and it can only be said generally that it seems to have been a courtyard erected when the limited accommodation of the keep was found unsuitable, in order to provide the more extended requirements of the period, in a similar manner to the extensions of Dunnottar and other enlarged castles. One of the apartments on the south side, now full of ruins, was probably the new kitchen; adjoining it is an oven, still entire. The buildings have been two and three stories in height, and in some parts of consider- able architectural pretensions, as is shown by the scanty remains of some