Reference

Date 1960

Event ID 922806

Category Documentary Reference

Type Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/922806

The first stone castle of Rothesay was a 12th century shell-keep, the curtain of which, still 30 feet high and 9 feet thick, was sunk into the earthen bank of a pre-existing fort, superseding an earlier timber palisade. It stands on a flat topped circular mound surrounded by a water moat.

The small forework at the entrance was added in the early 13th century, before about 1220. The four towers, of which two are much reduced, were added in the last quarter of the 13th century, when the wall-head was remodelled. At some time between the late 14th and mid 16th centuries the great forework was added, to complete the present castle.

There may have been a Cromwellian reconstruction of the outer works in 1650, including the provision of gun-platforms in rounded bastions at each of the corners dominated by the mediaeval towers.

S Cruden 1960.