Crail, Marketgate. View from west.

Description Crail, Marketgate. View from west.

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 739301

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1933

Scope and Content Nos 42-44 Marketgate, Crail, Fife Marketgate, a broad thoroughfare that runs parallel to the shore, is one of Crail's oldest streets, and once formed one of the largest medieval market-places in Europe. The south side contains 18th-century vernacular houses which were photographed by the Scottish photographer, Erskine Beveridge, on a visit to Crail c.1890. Nos 42-4 Marketgate, a tall house divided into upper and lower flats, is built to a T-plan with a two-windowed crowstepped gable to the street, and a forestair in the west re-entrant angle which leads to the upper flat. The upper part of the roof is pantiled, and the lower part or eaves course roofed with slates. The walls are harled over rough rubble, and the margins or dressed stones round the windows have been painted. The steeply pitched roof, associated with Scottish architecture at the turn of the 1700s, survived into the first quarter of the 18th century, in part because of the high rainfall of these years, especially in coastal areas. The pronounced sloping surface of the roof speeded the run-off of rainwater, and the crowsteps, squared stones set like steps, helped by overlaying and protecting the vulnerable gablehead from surplus water. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/739301

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap