Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans 1450–1650With the exception of the key royal sites, such as Stirling and Edinburgh, few Scottish castles were located at strategic points, or were intended to house garrisons required to defend or subjugate towns. Instead they were primarily fortified dwelling houses, erected in an environment of weak Royal authority and endemic feuding between rival clans and groups, in both Highland and Lowland areas. Although some enceinte castles were developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, most defensive construction focused on the tower house, a distinctive vernacular style of Scottish fortification. This book examines the design, development, and purpose of these quintessentially Scottish buildings, and also covers larger sites such as Urquhart and Blackness. |
Contents
| 4 | |
Chronology | 8 |
Design and development | 9 |
Construction | 21 |
Principles of defence | 29 |
Urquhart | 36 |
Everyday life in the castles and tower houses | 46 |
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Common terms and phrases
16th century Aberdeen Aberdeenshire accessed Antiquities of Scotland army artillery barmekin wall Baronial and Ecclesiastical Braemar building built cap-houses Castle Fraser Castle Historic Scotland Castle Levan castles and tower chambers constructed corbelled corner courtyard castle defended door Doune Castle Dunnottar Castle Earl Ecclesiastical Antiquities Edinburgh enceinte castle engraved by R.W. entrance example first-floor level flanking towers Forbes fore-stair Fortifications fortress Freuchie garrison gatehouse Grant of Freuchie ground floor gunloops guns hall Huntly Castle Inverness Jacobite Rising Kildrummy Kildrummy Castle kitchen L-plan L-plan tower house Laird later Linlithgow loch main block metres miles military Moray motte Nether Bailey Newark Castle original palace peel tower R.W. Billings rectangular tower house roof rubble Ruthven Barracks Scots Scottish castles servants simply Spynie Palace square or rectangular stair tower Stewart Stirling stone storeys Strathdon structure surviving Threave Castle Tolquhon Castle Udny upper Urquhart Castle variant vaulted wall-head wooden