stirling-1963-vol-1/05_258

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 85 Stirling Castle (No. 192); the King's Old Building

18th century the first floor of the main block was utilised
as officers' lodgings (cf. Pl. 59). In 1719 the N. part of
the main block at ground-floor level was occupied by
the Chaplain, and one of the rooms in the wing was used
by the armourer, the remainder of the ground floor of
the main block being devoted to cellarage. On the first
floor the N. portion of the main block and the whole of
the wing formed "The Majors Apartments"; the central
part of the main block was used for storage while to
the S. there was a woodhouse and a bakehouse. The
two-storeyed addition of the 17th century was used as
an infirmary. A sectional drawing of the main block
indicates that it comprised two storeys and an attic at
this date. ¹ In 1855 the N. end of the main block and the
whole of the E. wing were gutted by fire (cf. p. 191); this
part of the structure was then rebuilt, the first floor of
the wing being converted into a museum. The remainder
of the King's Old Building was extensively remodelled
both in the 19th and 20th centuries. Old doors and
windows have been blocked up and new ones inserted,
the floor levels have been altered and the disposition of
the rooms changed. The building is now used for a
variety of purposes and the original features that remain
to be described are comparatively few in number.
The most interesting feature of the E. façade (Pl. 93 A)
is the stair-turret that stands near the S. end of the range;
this appears to be of late 16th- or early 17th-century date.
This tower is rectangular at base but is intaken to a half-
octagon at second-floor level, and above this finishes in
a chequered corbel-course. The roof is crowned with a
stone finial in the form of a lion sejant. The original
entrance-doorway, which has a moulded surround,
remains in the E. wall at ground-floor level but was
blocked up when the stair was remodelled in the 19th
century. Most of the windows in the tower are insertions,
but original windows, now blocked, survive in the N.
wall and traces of others can be seen in the E. and S.
walls. The two-storeyed addition to the S. of the stair-
tower has been very much altered, and now contains
no features of interest apart from the jamb of an original
window, with a chamfered arris, which remains in the E.
wall. To the N. of the stair-tower the original E. wall
of the main block is exposed but has been entirely
remodelled, all the doors and windows visible today being
insertions. The wall finishes in a cavetto eaves-course
which may be original. A turnpike stair originally stood
in the re-entrant angle between the main block and the
E. wing, but this was removed in the 19th century and
replaced by another slightly S. of the original one. At
the same time a single-storeyed outshot was erected
against the S. wall of the E. wing. The extent to which
the older walling remains behind these later additions
may best be appreciated by a study of Fig. 85. The
N. façade of the building is of 19th-century date except
at its W. end, where an original 16th-century outshot
rises to between second- and third-floor levels. A
garderobe shaft projects from the W. wall of the outshot,
while in the E. wall there is a sink outlet between ground-
and first-floor levels. The W. curtain wall runs N.
from the outshot, from which access could formerly be
obtained to the rampart-walk. The access doorway,
which is checked for an external door, is now blocked; it
stands about 4 ft. above the level of the present walk, and
this suggests that both the parapet and the rampart-walk
were originally at a higher level than they are at present.
The W. wall of the range stands on the edge of one of

1 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/18.

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