Toward Castle (22)
We don't really know a whole lot about this east range and there are a couple of inexplicable anomalies! M&R state:
"The apartment marked "Kitchen" is so named on account of the projection in the [east] wall, which is supposed to have contained the kitchen chimney. There is apparently a wide fireplace in the gable of the room adjoining ; and from this room a doorway leads to the outside (not into the courtyard), and, as will be seen from the check, the door has been hung, contrary to the usual practice, on the inside of the wall, and opened outwards."
Personally, I am unconvinced that the projection in the west wall, not visible in this shot, would have been a fireplace. The arch visible in the distance is clearly a kitchen fireplace and it makes no sense that there would have been two large ground-floor fireplaces in a castle of this size. It would make more sense that the projection supported a fireplace in the Hall, on the floor above.
The external door is an anomaly too. While larger castles sometimes had postern gates and a few castles had doors for the use of the domestic servants, such doors were a security weakness. A door that opened outwards would be unique in my experience, the problem with such a door being that it can't be barred from the inside. It is possible that there was a doorway here prior to the siege of 1646, because the projection referred to above has a pistol shot-hole in its side, which covers this doorway, but I wonder if the doorway was made after 1646. While the castle itself was abandoned after the siege, it is known that this north-west corner of the east range was lived in, so perhaps an east facing door was inserted at this time.
Toward Castle (22)
We don't really know a whole lot about this east range and there are a couple of inexplicable anomalies! M&R state:
"The apartment marked "Kitchen" is so named on account of the projection in the [east] wall, which is supposed to have contained the kitchen chimney. There is apparently a wide fireplace in the gable of the room adjoining ; and from this room a doorway leads to the outside (not into the courtyard), and, as will be seen from the check, the door has been hung, contrary to the usual practice, on the inside of the wall, and opened outwards."
Personally, I am unconvinced that the projection in the west wall, not visible in this shot, would have been a fireplace. The arch visible in the distance is clearly a kitchen fireplace and it makes no sense that there would have been two large ground-floor fireplaces in a castle of this size. It would make more sense that the projection supported a fireplace in the Hall, on the floor above.
The external door is an anomaly too. While larger castles sometimes had postern gates and a few castles had doors for the use of the domestic servants, such doors were a security weakness. A door that opened outwards would be unique in my experience, the problem with such a door being that it can't be barred from the inside. It is possible that there was a doorway here prior to the siege of 1646, because the projection referred to above has a pistol shot-hole in its side, which covers this doorway, but I wonder if the doorway was made after 1646. While the castle itself was abandoned after the siege, it is known that this north-west corner of the east range was lived in, so perhaps an east facing door was inserted at this time.