08/23/03

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If you study the castle as it is today from the outside, you will be aware that it has a unified design with Victorian dummy pepperpots and defensive battlements running the whole length of the roofline.  This "romantic restoration" was carried out for the 25th Chief between 1840 and 1850 to the plans of Robert Brown of Edinburgh at a total cost of 8,000 British Pounds.  He raised the 'Jamb" (side tower) of the Keep to 130 ft above the ground, extended the front of the Rory Mor's building (which now houses the Dining Room) and spliced it to the Keep, so forming space for the library and connecting stairs.  He also rebuilt the North Wing as a billiard room with servant's quarters below.  Except for the porch, the Front Hall remains structurally as it was in 1814.  Underneath this outer skin, however, there remains a series of complete buildings, each of a separate date....

Leod's Original Fort.  Close to the rock itself, from the northwest corner of the Sea Gate and also at the base of the Fairy Tower, sections of rough stonework indicate the last remains of 13th century fortifications.  Leod died about 1280.  In his day, a massive curtain wall totally enclosed the rock, leaving a single access where the Sea Gate is now, heavily defended by a barbican, yett (door) and portcullis.  The buildings inside would have been of wood, probably thatched;  the all - important well dates from the earliest period.  There was almost certainly an earlier fort on this site, possibly predating Leod by as much as 1,000 years.

The Keep (dated 1340 - 1360) was commissioned by Malcolm (3rd Chief) who is said to have been allied in marriage to the Campbells of Lochow, then in high favour with King David II of Scotland.  Royal masons are thought to have been employed on the building of the Keep.  In the Dungeon and in the basement of this massive structure, where part of the old kitchen and a service stair are laid bare to the stonework, it can be seen as it has been since the 14th century.

The Fairy Tower (c. 1500) occupies the southeast corner of the rock.  Its four floors were connected by a circular mural stair still in place as far down as the first floor level.  Alasdair "Crotach" (8th Chief) was responsible for this elegant and practical addition.  The roof, outer walls and room layout remain exactly as built, but later buildings abut on both sides and access has been slapped through the walls at three levels.

Rory Mor's House (1623) was on the site of the central block which now houses the Dining Room at first floor level;  the east wall up to the balustrade is original.  The engraving published by Captain Grose (1790) shows a long ridge - roofed building probably conceived as living quarters at a time when the great hall in the Keep was becoming to "spartan".  Sometime in the early 18th century, the Keep became roofless and remained so for nearly 100 years, its mighty walls at the mercy of wind and rain.

Ian Breac's Improvements (1664 and 1689).  The 18th Chief has left records of contracts and instructions for the rebuilding of his grandfather Rory Mor's house.  The "Pipers Gallery" (the carved stone balustrade running to the Fairy Tower) survives as it was in 1664;  the South Wing was built between 1684 - 1690, when it is thought to have replaced a family chapel on the site;  it was lower then than it is today, with a ridge roof, until the alterations of 1790.

The Landward Entrance (1748).  Whether or not some small postern or service door existed on the east wall of the Castle earlier is no longer clear, but the first landward Front Door was made in 1748.  James Boswell recorded the fact in 1773, when he and Dr Johnson made their celebrated Journey to the Hebrides.  As can be seen in sketches of the period, a long flight of steps was required to reach it until the "moat" or ditch had been filled to a sufficient level.

The General's Remodeling (1790).  The 23rd Chief, Norman (known as the General, for his rank while in India) returned from a very successful career as a soldier with two objectives in his mind for his ancestral home.  First, that it should become a comfortable house for his young second wife and his family;  second, that it should be enlarged to accommodate recruits to the regiment he was raising from among his own people at the time.  His architect, Walter Boak, achieved these ends ( at a total cost of 3, 941 British Pounds) by re-roofing the Keep, breaking out the windows to create the Drawing room and running the ridge of Rory Mor's House up to the wall of the Keep, forming a doorway in the thickness of it's south side at the first floor level.  He then constructed the tall Barrack Block to the north, as seen in William Daniell's sketch.  Daniell's engraving of 1819 shows the Castle at it's zenith with the twin towers and collonaded portico, approached by a stone breastwork and ornamental drawbridge, added (1814 - 15) by the General's son, John Norman, to complete and harmonize the whole structure.  The General's approach had been by the stone bridge over the burn, built before his death in 1801.  A rough sketch by an unknown hand of about 1795 shows his front door, with the steps up to it;  the door was set in a small rectangular, battlemented extension later incorporated into the front hall block.

Whatever one's personal opinion of the Victorian re-construction, it is at least reserved in its use of "Baronial" extravagances and has gone a long way towards preserving the whole structure for posterity.