Detail of doorway in SW tower

Description Detail of doorway in SW tower

Date 11/1961

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number DF 256

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 767376

Scope and Content Doorway in South-West Stair-Tower, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway This doorway in the south-west stair-tower, a five-storeyed corner turret in the south-west re-entrant angle of the courtyard, has a Doric doorcase with fluted pilasters flanking a sturdy oak studded door, and a deep frieze and cornice. The frieze is carved with five triglyphs (three-grooved 'tablets' or stylised beam-ends) between which are examples of Douglas heraldry, including the winged heart emblem. The stair-tower is a reminder that Drumlanrig was constructed as a real castle. The late 17th-century arrangement of rooms provided no internal staircase for access to the upper floors, and vertical circulation was only by the newel stairs in the corner towers in the re-entrant angles of the courtyard. Until 1697 when the great internal state staircase, designed theoretically for the king and the royal entourage to ascend to the state apartments on the first floor, was completed, general access for family, guests or servants to the rooms on the upper floors was by the stair-tower. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, 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 Master of Works (builder) was William Lukup. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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