Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
These galleries, situated in the heart of the wall, are six in number.
Each begins about 3 feet 9 inches in front of the stair, and goes round
the whole tower on the level till it comes against the back of the
stair, which closes it at that end, so that entrance to the gallery or
exit from it can only be obtained by stepping across the space
intervening between the end of the gallery floor and the steps of the
stair. The floors of the galleries are formed of flat undressed slabs,
the end of which reach into the walls on both sides. These slabs are
about 6 inches thick, and those whose under surfaces form the roof of
the first gallery present their upper surfaces as the floor of the
second, and so throughout. None of the galleries exceed 5 feet 6 inches
in height or 3 feet 2 inches in width, and some of the upper spaces are
now much narrower; but as the position of the upper walls has evidently
shifted, the original dimensions of the upper galleries cannot be
ascertained. Four of the galleries that now remain (for the tower is
incomplete at top) are lighted by four vertical ranges of windows all
looking into the interior court. One range of fourteen openings is over
the main entrance. Another of eighteen openings is over the entrance to
the stairs. The third set has seventeen openings, and the fourth is
imperfect, many of the lintels having been broken out. The peculiarities
of these windows are—(1) that they are placed close to each other,
vertically, with merely the thickness of a lintel between each opening;
(2) they are wider than they are high, the greatest width being 2 feet 9
inches, and the greatest height not exceeding a foot; (3) they diminish
in size gradually from the lowest to the highest; and (4) they do not
range so far upwards as to include the two upper galleries, which are
windowless.
Let us now group the main features of this singular building. It is a
circular tower, composed of a dry-built wall 15 feet thick, enclosing a
court 20 feet in diameter. The wall rises to a height of 45 feet, and
has no opening to the outside except the doorway which gives access to
the court. Opening from the court are a series of chambers on the ground
floor constructed in the thickness of the wall and rudely vaulted with
overlapping masonry. Above these are successive ranges of level
galleries, also in the thickness of the wall, each going round the
tower, and placed so that the roof of the one below always forms the
floor of the next above. These galleries are crossed successively by a
stair from which access to them is obtained by facing round in the
ascent and stepping across the vacant space forming the well of the
stair. The three lower galleries only are lighted, and the windows are
placed in vertical ranges so close to each other as to be separated only
by their upper and lower lintels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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