360 no 3 Edzel Castle

Entry for May 28, 2007, 360 import, Edzell Castle

May 28, '07 3:59 PM for loretta's contacts

Here I am again at the end of another longish, coldish, dismal(ish) day, and still not solved the problem of uploading photos, which is (as opposed to 'uplifting photos') apparently the correct terminology for getting them from wherever they are to here. Thank you for your advice re photos and correct terminology, shall do as you suggest and wait for Yahoo to provide a download transfer link and for now just upload a few here and there. Thanks, all advice appreciated.
The dastardly ECDL was OK, passed another module and am now left with the tantalising choice of doing Database or Spreadsheets next, wow, exciting or what?? how lucky am I?
IF and I do mean IF I manage to upload the photo of choice for today it will be a rather nice view of Edzell Castle, situated in the delightful Angus countryside. This one was taken a while ago with my old APS, this was prior to getting my trusty little digi that now goes everywhere with me. So if the quality isn't that good, well that's why. Should really go back this summer and get some better pics.
What to say about Edzell Castle, well for a start it's not a castle, it's a Scottish Tower House, my favourite type of building. Scottish Tower Houses, the traditional and vernacular residence of the Scottish Nobility. Beautiful, strong, impressive, stone rubble built tower houses harled in white with brightly painted detail. These days they are mostly all devoid of their original harling. Some due to the ruinous state of the building and some because the ignorant owners thought the building would look better if the stone was uncovered. The living accommodation in a tower house is organised vertically rather than horizontally. The ground floor usually consists of vaulted storage areas and/or kitchen ranges, the first floor is where the main entrance is and usually where the grand hall is found. The upper floors are bedrooms and guest apartments. That is a very, very basic outline of what a Scottish Tower house is and not all of them will conform exactly to that rather crude formula. But you get the idea.
Edzell Castle was the ancestral seat of the Lindsays, they acquired it in 1358 and at the time the house was an earthwork-and-timber motte
http://www.castlewales.com/motte.html
www.castles-of-britain.com/castlesa.htm
thought to have been built some time in the 1100's. The old building stood about 300m South-West of the present building. The Lindsays built the first stage of the present building and started living in it from the early 1500's. Over time new ranges were added by the lindsays and their descendants but their greatest achievement was the garden. This was a first class renaissance walled garden complete with stone built summer house and a boundary wall covered with unique carved stone panels and tiny alcoves for plants. The carvings depict Arts, Virtues, Planets, Gods, everything you would expect from a true Renaissance building.
The last Lindsay Laird was deeply in dept and sold the estate to the Earl of Panmure in 1715 BUT..... because the said Earl of Panmure joined the 1715 Jacobite rising he forfeited all of his estates, including Edzell. The new owner began stripping Edzell of its assets and soon the place fell into disrepair. THEN..... in the 1745 Jacobite rising a bunch of hardy Argyll Highlanders moved in and occupied the castle for a while. The final death blow to the Castle was in 1764 when it was gutted for building materials. What a bloody sordid end to such a spectacular piece of Scottish renaissance architectural history.
I just do so love Scottish Tower Houses, this one in particular.
www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/edzell/edzellcastle/index.html

Tags: 360 import, environment, edzell castle, edzell, scotland, architecture

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