The fifteenth century brought a change in castle-building. The accommodation of the keeps was circumscribed and the paucity of rooms made privacy impossible. One way of extending the space was, as we have said, by adding a wing at one corner. Another mode was to utilise the surrounding wall, for the keeps were generally guarded by a wall, which formed a courtyard or barmekin for stabling and offices. This was often of considerable extent and defended by towers. As the country progressed and manners improved, buildings were extended round the inside of the courtyard walls. In the sixteenth century the change went further and developed into the mansion-house built round a quadrangle. The building was first in the centre of the surrounding wall; ultimately the courtyard was absorbed and became the centre of the castle.
Balquhain Castle in Chapel of Garioch, two miles from Inverurie, was originally a keep like Drum, but being destroyed in 1526, it was rebuilt. Very little of it now remains but its massive, weather-stained walls have a commanding effect. The barmekin is still traceable. Queen Mary is said to have passed the night prior to the Battle of Corrichie at Balquhain. It was burned in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland.
Many other castles on the same general plan are dotted up and down the county. Some are in ruins, some have been altered and added to on other lines, but the original keep is still a marked feature in most of them. Cairnbulg—recently restored—on the north-east coast has a keep of the fifteenth century with additions of a century later. Gight, now ruinous, but formerly celebrated for its great strength, occupies a fine site on the summit of the Braes of Gight, which rise abruptly from the bed of the Ythan. It also is a fifteenth century edifice built on the =L= plan. It has a historical interest as having once belonged to Lord Byron’s mother, from whom it was purchased by the Earl of Aberdeen. Another of the same kind is Craig Castle in Auchindoir. It was completed in 1518 and is also on the =L= plan. So too is Fedderat in New Deer.
The Old House of Gight
In the sixteenth century the troubled reign of Queen Mary was unfavourable to architecture, but towards the end of it the rise of Renaissance art began to exert a decided influence, especially on details and internal furnishings, and in the next century gradually but completely dominated the spirit of the art. Another influence at work was the progress made in artillery. The ordinary castles could not now resist artillery fire, and all attempts at making them impregnable fortresses were abandoned, and the only fortifications retained were such as would make the buildings safe from sudden attack. In consequence, what had before been grim fortresses were now transformed into country mansions, whether on the keep or on the quadrangle plan; and sites were chosen as providing shelter from the elements rather than defence against human foes. The Reformation, too, which secularised the church lands and gave the lion’s share to the nobility, was a notable influence in revolutionising architecture. The nobility being now more wealthy were enabled either to extend their old mansions or to build new ones. Hence the great development that took place in the quiet reign of James VI. The effect of the Union in 1603, which drew many of the nobility to England, was civilising and educative, and raised their ideas of house accommodation as well as their standard of comfort and domestic amenity.
The change was of course gradual. The old keeps and the castles built round a courtyard were still in evidence, but picturesque turrets corbelled out at every angle of the building, slated, and terminating in fanciful finials, became the rule. The lower walls were kept plain, the ornamentation being lavishly crowded only on the upper parts. The roofs became high-pitched with picturesque chimneys, dormer windows and crow-stepped gables. All these features so characteristic of the mansion-houses of the fourth period (1542-1700) are well marked in Craigievar, which is one of the best preserved castles of the time. Its ground plan is of the =L= type, but the turrets
Craigievar Castle, Donside
and gables are corbelled out with ornamental mouldings and the upper part of the castle displays that profusion of sky-pointing pinnacles and multifarious parapets which mark the period. The same is seen at Crathes and at Castle Fraser. The last is altogether an excellent specimen. It consists of a central oblong building with two towers at the diagonally opposite ends, one square and the other round, and is therefore a development into what has been called the =Z= plan or stepped plan—induced by the general use of firearms in defence. Here, as at Craigievar, gargoyles originally used to carry off rain water from the roof are brought in as a piece of fanciful decoration, apart from any utilitarian purpose, and project from the walls at places where rain-spouts are irrelevant.