Rowallan Castle

Rowallan Castle

Rowallan Castle is a medieval fortified residence that developed around a tight courtyard plan from around the late 13th century to the early 18th century. In the 16th century it was transformed into a Renaissance mansion with the development of an impressive gatehouse range with paired round towers.

The castle is approached from the east across a narrow stone arched bridge. There are remains of a small entrance courtyard framing the principal east-facing elevation of the castle. The courtyard has a classical arched gateway dated 1661 and decorated with a broken pediment and obelisk finials. The southeast elevation is the principal entrance frontage of the castle. This part developed from the late 15th century with significant alterations in the late 16th century. It is an impressive gatehouse range with a sculptured arched entrance flanked by a pair of conical-roofed round towers added in the mid-16th century. The entrance is at first floor level accessed from a substantial mid-17th century stone forestair with a solid balustrade with ball finials. The entrance and towers are constructed in ashlar, and the towers have round-arched windows to the second floor. The rest of the elevation has an irregular arrangement of window openings with predominantly small-paned sash and case timber windows. There is heavy cable moulding to the first floor; similar mouldings decorate circular gunloops which punctuate the towers. Above the arched entrance is a heraldic panel bearing the Royal arms with the Mure arms beneath surrounded by cable bosses and capped by a turbaned Moor's head, a pun on the family name. The slated roof has cat-slide dormers, lighting a single space interpreted as a long gallery, and the gables are mostly crow-stepped (the rear pitch of the northwest gable has flat skews). There is a single dumb-bell gunport at basement level indicating a late 15th century date for the lowest level of the range.

The southwest and northwest elevations are constructed in rubble masonry without significant elaboration. Dumb-bell gunports pierce the lower storey of the south end of the southwest range indicating that the vaulted basement on which the range is built dates to the late 15th century. At principal floor level, which contained the hall and chamber created in the early 16th century, are rectangular windows which have been altered. These have small-paned timber sash and case windows and a little above them is a blind panel formerly housing a carved armorial. The gable at the south end was raised to accommodate a long gallery in the southeast range and in it is a large window for viewing the gardens. The gable has crow-steps. The west end of the southwest range is symmetrically glazed as a result of 18th century rebuilding.

The northeast external elevation is formed by the late 13th century tower (now ruinous) and a mid-16th century block in the north corner which has the remains of a bartizan or turret in the northwest angle. This building and the southwest range are linked by a stretch of curtain wall corbelled for a parapet and parapet walk and pierced by two wide-mouthed gun ports. There are indications that there was a matching bartizan in the southwest angle before early 18th century reworking.

The courtyard is a tightly enclosed space entered from the pend in the gatehouse range. The courtyard elevation of the gatehouse range has two window openings at first level with elaborate 17th century mouldings, and a single window opening on the second floor. The windows have small panes and are timber sash and case. The ground floor of this range has two chambers flanking the vaulted entrance passage. The first floor is similar in plan, with chambers either side of a hall which had access to the small chambers in the towers. The southern room was a bed chamber and features a timber bed alcove flanked by presses perhaps dating to the early 18th century. On the second floor, there is a single space running the length of the range which was probably a long gallery.

The southwest range is the most complex both in its development through time and the nature of the spaces within. The lower vaulted floor probably dates to the late 15th century; its northeast wall airts the castle mound, extending the area to build on and allowing level access from the courtyard to the hall and chamber block constructed in the early 16th century. The easternmost bay of this range was extensively rebuilt in the early 18th century, which also altered the original entrance arrangements to the hall.

At either end of the southwest range are projecting square stair towers giving the elevation a degree of symmetry. The southeast stair turret serves the long gallery in the attic of the east range, the rooms above the hall and the bedroom above the chamber. Just to the west of this stair tower is a large stepped chimney stack for the hall fireplace. The northwest stair is an early to mid-17th century reconstruction of an earlier stair, and has strap-ended (buckle) quoins.

The main entrance to the south range is an early 18th century doorway with bolection mouldings. This doorway replaced the early 16th century entrance arrangements. It opens into a stone flagged entrance hall. This hall, replacing the function of the medieval screens passage, has two doorways, one leading to a stair down to what probably was always a kitchen but which was enlarged in the 18th century, and another to the hall/dining room. The hall/dining room has an early 18th century timber door with doorcase decorated with Ionic pilasters with a bolection frieze and dentil cornice. The doorcase is set into a 20th century partition following the line of an early 18th century one. The chamber retains some 18th century panelling although much of the timber work dates to the 20th century (the original timber work was removed in late 19th century). Beyond this room is the solar or great chamber which again had elaborate timber work now removed (MacGibbon & Ross, vol 2 p 379). It has a partly reconstructed 16th century fireplace, a window ingo with a wall cupboard and stone seats, and a stair leading down to the basement.

The northeast range consists of the ruined 13th century tower and an adjacent roofless building in the northwest angle which by the early 17th century had a kitchen on the ground floor with a chamber above reached by a square stair tower. The doorway to this stair has a segmentally pedimented head containing the monogram and armorial panel of Sir William and Elizabeth Hamilton (around 1660).