View of bottom of stairs looking from chamber, Mine and Countermine at St Andrews Castle
SC 374871
Description View of bottom of stairs looking from chamber, Mine and Countermine at St Andrews Castle
Date c. 1930
Catalogue Number SC 374871
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of F 451
Scope and Content Stairs of mine from mine-head, St Andrews Castle, Fife St Andrews Castle, the seat of the bishop of St Andrews, was destroyed during the Wars of Independence and rebuilt in its present form by Bishop Traill (1385-1401). It was besieged in 1546-7 after Protestants assassinated Cardinal Beaton. The mine had to be dug deeply enough to reach under the bottom of the moat. These steps would have allowed mules or ponies to take out rubble and later, if the mine had been successful, take in gunpowder to demolish the castle's walls. If a mine reached the foundations of a castle during a medieval siege, usual practice was to burn the pit-props so that the walls were undermined by the resulting cave-in. However, by the 16th century, gunpowder could be used to cause a collapse instead. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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