Sanquhar Castle (3)
The inner castle is entered from the outer courtyard by this arched gateway, 7 feet 6 inches wide and protected by a great round tower, the stump of which can be seen on the right. Behind the door, a vaulted passage leads to the inner courtyard, which was surrounded by the principal buildings, including a keep at the south corner.
There has been debate over the years about the order in which these buildings were builded! The usually reliable MacGibbon & Ross stated that the keep at the south corner was the oldest part, but it would appear that for once they were wrong. The oldest part of the castle seems to have been a simple oblong keep, the masonry of which is included here. A description of the castle written in 1898 states that:
"The original keep, containing the principal gateway, has been, strange to say, the best and most substantially built part of the whole structure. The outer walls are composed of blocks of stone all of the same size, squared and dressed, and laid regularly in courses nine to eighteen inches in height, but they are now bleached and weather worn with the storms of centuries. The heart of the wall has been packed with whinstone and other hard material, into which hot lime has been run, welding the whole into one solid mass. A close inspection of the lime in the walls reveals the fact that it had been burnt in open fires by the agency of coal, as numerous particles of unburnt coal are to be discerned mixed up with it. "
Sanquhar Castle (3)
The inner castle is entered from the outer courtyard by this arched gateway, 7 feet 6 inches wide and protected by a great round tower, the stump of which can be seen on the right. Behind the door, a vaulted passage leads to the inner courtyard, which was surrounded by the principal buildings, including a keep at the south corner.
There has been debate over the years about the order in which these buildings were builded! The usually reliable MacGibbon & Ross stated that the keep at the south corner was the oldest part, but it would appear that for once they were wrong. The oldest part of the castle seems to have been a simple oblong keep, the masonry of which is included here. A description of the castle written in 1898 states that:
"The original keep, containing the principal gateway, has been, strange to say, the best and most substantially built part of the whole structure. The outer walls are composed of blocks of stone all of the same size, squared and dressed, and laid regularly in courses nine to eighteen inches in height, but they are now bleached and weather worn with the storms of centuries. The heart of the wall has been packed with whinstone and other hard material, into which hot lime has been run, welding the whole into one solid mass. A close inspection of the lime in the walls reveals the fact that it had been burnt in open fires by the agency of coal, as numerous particles of unburnt coal are to be discerned mixed up with it. "