Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/486

FOURTH PERIOD 4?0 ABERDOUR CASTLE periods are shown on the plans, the first in black, the second in cross- hatching, and the third in single hatching. The keep, occupying the highest ground, is partly protected by the Dour on the north, and entirely so along the west, and by steep ground to the south. In what manner it was protected along the east cannot now be ascertained. This tower is a parallelogram on plan, with two sharp and two obtuse angles. It measures 56 feet by 37 feet, with the entrance at the south corner of the east wall. The ground floor is divided into two chambers by a thick wall, the outer chamber being two stories in height, both of which are barrel-vaulted. The inner chamber, reached by a passage taken off the lower of the two outer chambers, and entered by a pointed doorway, is in one story, . also vaulted, and equal in height to the two stories of the outer chamber, so that the floor of the hall above, which extends over both, is level throughout. The upper floors seem to have been reached by a corkscrew staircase entering off the passage inside the doorway, but what with the ruinous condition of the keep, and the subsequent alterations and additions, nothing very definite can be said about the upper floors. The south wall, with the return of the west wall, are the only portions of the keep of which any considerable remains exist above the vault, while a huge compact mass of the west wall has fallen, and lies blocking the place with its ruins. This mass fell in the year 1844. One of the hall windo'ws in the south wall is a two-light pointed window contained within a round label moulding, and is seen in the view from the south-west (Fig. 901). Near the top of this wall, on the outside, are several large irregular corbels, evidently connected with the parapet, but now very much wasted and ruinous. There were two stories above the hall, with joisted floors supported on beams. The wall at the top was thickened to the inside by projecting continuous corbelling. This was sometimes done for the purpose of giving greater breadth for the parapet walk. The additions to the castle are of a purely domestic type, retaining- no traces of a defensive character. The first addition is attached to the keep by a circular staircase, which served both buildings. The entrance, which was on the east side, led directly into the staircase, and thence into a lobby, off which is the kitchen and a store-room, both vaulted. Adjoining the kitchen, and projected to the south, is a tower chamber, circular inside, now inaccessible, and (as seen from above) full of rubbish. This was probably a service stair from the kitchen to the floor above, and, if so, it must have entered off the kitchen fireplace, where a round oven (inserted afterwards) is shown on plan. The two upper floors were divided similarly to the ground floor, and were provided with garde-robes in the thickness of the walls of the principal rooms (Fig. ' 902). The