CRAIGNETHAN CASTLE - 259 - THIRD PERIOD obtained to the wide principal staircase in the south-west angle, and also to a stair under the above leading to the vaults below. The great hall also enters from this lobby. The hall is 40 feet 3 inches by 20 feet 6 inches wide, and has a lofty semicircular vault well constructed with hewn freestone, now, unfortunately, in a very ruinous state. Two wide windows light the hall on the south side, and one at the east end. These and the other wall openings have bold rolls with raised fillet on the angles. The fireplace seems to have been in the central wall where now demolished. The private room, with fireplace and garde-robe, entered off the hall at the north-east angle, where there is also access to a private newel stair to the upper floors. To the north of the entrance lobby is a small apartment or guard-room (now partly filled up), from which there must have been originally a door to the kitchen, the great fireplace of which still remains. The newel stair from the guard-room to the roof would be used for manning the battlements. The upper portion of the building is now a total ruin, and cannot be inspected with safety. A vaulted basement extends under the whole of the keep, divided similarly to the principal floor. The cellar under the east end of the hall contains a circular-built well. The keep has had battlements all round and probably a stone roof with open bartizans corbelled out at the angles (Fig. 213). There is also a projecting bartizan over the entrance door. The corbelling is of the same design as that of Edzell Castle, and shows the transition from the earlier massive corbelling with machicolations to the later style when the corbels were entirely ornamental. The corbels of the lower of the two rows have in this case nothing to support and are used merely for ornament. The bartizans have each a peculiar angle shaft on the outer face, which mitres into the string-course at bottom, and probably supported a shield with coat of arms or a crest or other ornament rising above the parapet. But of these finials no trace now remains. Judging from the style of the building, this keep seems to belong to the latter half of the fifteenth century. It was no doubt originally sur- rounded with walls which extended as far as the present moat, and portions of which are probably incorporated in the existing walls of enceinte. It is generally related that this castle was built by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who was Superintendent of Royal Palaces and Castles under James v. in the first half of the sixteenth century, but the keep is undoubtedly of older date. The lands of Draflfane, the ancient name of Craignethan, were acquired by James, Lord Hamilton, in the middle of the fifteenth century, probably on the forfeiture of the Earl of Douglas in 1455. It was not till 152.9 that these lands were settled by the first Earl of Arran, Lord Hamilton's successor, on his illegitimate
