stirling-1963-vol-1/05_257

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
The range comprises a series of four compartments
and a transe which runs along the greater part of their
SW. side. The NW. end of the range assumed its present
form only in the 19th century, when the NW. gable was
reduced to its foundations and replaced by another wall
about 8 ft. SE. of the original one. On the ground floor
the northernmost compartment of the kitchen range
survives, but it has been much reduced in area because
of the rebuilding of the NW, gable. It is crowned by a
three-storeyed house which is for the most part of 19th-
century date. In the outer face of the SW. wall, however,
at first-floor level, there can be seen an old window,
now blocked, and this indicates that in the original
arrangement the kitchen range contained an upper
storey at its NW. end. The northernmost compartment
is entered by a doorway in the SW. wall; the room was
no doubt vaulted in the first instance, but the vault
was removed during the 19th-century alterations. In
the SE. wall there is a locker, and SW. of it a doorway,
now blocked, which formerly communicated with the
adjoining compartment to the SE. There is an original
window, now blocked, in the SW. wall and a 19th-
century fireplace in the NW. wall. In the NE. wall there
is a mural chamber but this is now inaccessible from
within although it may be entered through a roughly
formed opening in the outer face of the wall. There is
also a window in the NE. wall, but this has been widened
and in the first instance was probably a gun-loop of
dumb-bell shape. The NE. wall of the Castle originally
contained a number of these gun-loops, but when the
kitchen range was built against the curtain the loops were
for the most part blocked up or converted into windows
for the new range; some of them are still visible in the
outer face of the wall (Pl. 94C).
The other compartments are reached by some steps
and a small forecourt, all recently formed. On the NE.
side of the court there is an entrance to the compartment
immediately SE. of the one that has just been described;
while to the SE. of this a wide segmental-headed arch-
way, chamfered and checked, gives admission to the
transe, which is vaulted. The SE. gable and SW. wall of
the transe are featureless, but the NE. wall contains three
borrowed lights and, at its SE. end, a segmental-headed
archway which admits to the largest compartment of
the range, probably a store-room. This room, which is
vaulted, contains two windows in its NE. wall. The
N. window was originally a loop of dumb-bell shape
with an open breast and a very wide rear-arch and was
altered when the adjoining window was made. Both
windows have been protected by heavy grilles. On the
SW. a large locker is set between the two borrowed
lights that open to the transe; on the SE. a wide
segmental-headed archway opens into the compartment
beyond, and NE. of the archway there is a corbelled
shelf. At each end of the store-room there is a kitchen.
The NW. one, which has a separate entry from the small
forecourt, formerly contained ovens and was probably a
bakehouse; it is entered from the store-room by a door-
way, which opens into the back of a large fireplace
occupying the whole SE. wall of the apartment. The
fireplace breast is supported by two segmental-headed
arches which meet on a central pier. In the hearth a
hatch gives access to a small chamber 5 ft. in depth and
measuring 9 ft. 10 in. by 5 ft. over all; this may be an ash
pit. Two openings in the back of the fireplace formerly
gave access to ovens, now removed, the chambers of
which must have projected into the adjoining store-room.
In the NE. wall of the bakehouse there is a large loop of
dumb-bell shape with a segmental rear-arch (Pl. 94 B).
In the SW. wall there is a borrowed light, together with
the other entrance. In the NW. wall there is the built-up
doorway that formerly admitted to the northernmost
apartment of the range. The kitchen to the SE. of the
store-room has a much restored fireplace at its SE. end
(Pl. 94 A), similar to the one in the bakehouse. On the NE.
there is a wide window with a segmental rear-arch and
open breast. On the SW. the wall shows traces of a
double race-bond, but this may not be of any great age.
The Grand Battery (Fig. 71), which stands above the
kitchen range, seems to have assumed its present form
in the early 18th century, and its wide, double-splayed
cannon-embrasures are no doubt of this date. There was,
however, a battery of the same name on this site in the
17th century, ¹ and the smaller embrasures that remain
today in the curtain wall to the NW. and SE. of the main
battery are probably the survivors of this earlier arrange-
ment.

THE KING'S OLD BUILDING (Fig. 85). In 1676 the
range of buildings that occupies the W. side of the
Upper Square was described as the "old building on
the west syde of the upper closs", while in 1687 it seems
to have been referred to as the "King's old work". ² The
remains comprise an L-shaped range of buildings, con-
sisting of a main block which runs approximately N. and
S., together with a wing which projects E. from the N.
end of the main block. The range now rises to a height
of three storeys and an attic, except at the N. end of the
main block where it is of four storeys, but some of the
original floor-levels have been altered and cannot now be
ascertained. The greater part of the structure appears to
be of 16th-century date ³, although some irregular wall-
alinements at the S. end of the main block suggest that
the range may here incorporate an older building. In the
late 16th or early 17th century a stair-tower was added
to the E. front towards its S. end, while a little later in
the 17th century a two-storeyed building was erected
in the SE. re-entrant angle between the stair-tower and
the E. wall of the main block. At the beginning of the

1 Cf. p. 188 and Pl. 56.
2 M. of W. Accts., MSS., Miscellaneous Stirling Castle
Accounts, 1667-1705.
3 Some of the old descriptions of the Castle state that the
dormer pediments mentioned on pp. 184, n. 8 and 195 came not
from the Palace but from the King's Old building (Shearer's
Stirling: Historical and Descriptive (1897), 32; Groome, Ordnance
Gazetteer of Scotland (1901), 1514). In the present account,
MacGibbon and Ross (Cast. and Dom. Arch., i, 475) have been
regarded as the more reliable authorities, but should Shearer
and those who follow him be correct, the King's Old Building
could be dated precisely to the year 1557.

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