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Architecture Notes
Event ID 783279
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Architecture Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/783279
For details of excavation archive by Scotia Archaeology Limited in 1992, see ARCHAEOLOGY notes.
Blackness Castle stands on a rocky promontery on the shore of the Forth, in the East part of Carriden Parish, Linlithgowshire, and is in the charge of the Commissioners of H.M. Works. According to the Gazetteers of Scotland.
Blackness was in its time the Port of Linlithgow, and the Castle was one of the four fortresses agreed by the Act of Union to be kept up in Scotland as a chain of forts for the defence of the Lowlanders against Highland aggression.
In 1807 - 74 it was made the base for extensive works to serve as the central ammunition depot of Scoland, the works costing, it is said, considerably more than (pounds)10,000, and comprising a powder magazine; a light iron-girder pier; a sea-wall 1000 feet long; storage places for guns and munitions of war; besides barracks to accommodate 30 men and a 2-storey building in the 'Scottish Baronial' style for officers.
The National Library of Scotland contains a series of Military Maps and Drawings of the Board of Ordnance dealing with the troublous times of the 18th Century, Reference 'MSS. 1645-1652'. Among them are the following of Blackness Castle:-
No. Z 2/75.
In Volume or Case No.1647.
'Plan of the Castle of Blackness, 1741'. With reference. Scale 25 feet to an inch. There is also a copy.
No. Z 46/61.
In Volume of Case No.1650.
'Plan of the Ground Walls' (being the ground floor plan). With explanation. Scale three-quarters of an inch to 10 feet.
and 'Plan of the Gun Ports', with explanation. Scale 20 feet to an inch. There is no date.
MacGibbon and Ross, in 'The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland' give an historical and descriptive note, and several pen and ink sketches of the Castle.
NMRS REFERENCES (items not found at time of upgrade, March 1999)
Plans: 6 photostat copies of plans etc. in National Library of Scotland
2 large newspaper cuttings (showing church)
Wood Sketch Book 2: 1 sketch
