Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/92

FOURTH PERIOD 76 BRACKIE CASTLE The building all round the basement, and especially at the door, is well provided with horizontal embrasures for muskets, and there are also small shot-holes under all the windows of the upper floors, while the entrance doorway is defended with an iron yett. NM MM- FIG. 541. Brackie Castle. Plans. The hall, which is 26 feet by 17 feet, occupies the whole of the first floor. The fireplace in the hall may have been used for cooking purposes, as there is no distinct kitchen in the building, or the kitchen may have been a separate erection in the courtyard. From the first floor landing a small newel staircase, partly corbelled out in the angle between the main building and the wing, leads to the upper floors. In the wing there are three apartments in the height over the prin- cipal staircase, and in the main building there are two stories above the hall. The first room over the main staircase is the private room, which has a private stair, in the thickness of the back wall, connecting it with the hall, as well as an access by the newel stair. The other two rooms are bedrooms. The second floor of the main building over the hall is divided into two bedrooms with separate doors, and each provided with its garde- robe. The dividing partition is composed of a mixture of clay and straw. The third or top story, which is half in the roof, has one large chamber in the main building, with an overhanging turret at the south-west corner armed with three shot-holes. This small castle or manor-house had thus a wonderful amount of accommodation, having, in addition to the well-fortified basement and