View of castle from North.

Description View of castle from North.

Date 26/4/1999

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 714472

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 47000 CN

Scope and Content Entrance Front, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway This magnificent entrance front gives Drumlanrig its theatrical glamour. The rectangular towers at each outer corner are carried one storey higher than one-bayed, three-storeyed links which provide a step down each side to a five-bayed Classical centrepiece. The centrepiece has two storeys of pedimented windows framed by giant Corinthian pilasters, and a central projecting entrance porch which rises to a clock with a ducal coronet encircling its domed roof. The entrance is on a balustraded terrace above an arcaded and pilastered basement, and is approached by a double horseshoe-shaped staircase. The entrance front was approached at the end of a great avenue and through a long forecourt (foreground). The main entrance door was secured by an iron yett, a massive open-work gate that may have come from the earlier mid-16th-century house, and served as a reminder that Drumlanrig was constructed as a real castle. The entrance led into a loggia or arcaded gallery (now a hall), open on one side to the courtyard, and from here on the 17th-century progression led across the inner courtyard to the principal rooms in the south front of the house. The kitchen premises and cellarage were concealed at basement level under the terrace, screened from view by the arcade which provided a covered promenade at ground level, and supported the terrace above. Iron gates, similar to that on the entrance porch, were fitted to the basement doors. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, stands within extensive parkland amongst the hills of Nithsdale. The mansion was built between 1679 and 1690 for William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, incorporating part of a mid-16th-century house and the remains of a late 14th-century Douglas stronghold which originally stood on the site. The architect was almost certainly James Smith who had worked on the construction of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and the builder was William Lukup who is buried in Durisdeer churchyard nearby. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/714472

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap