Rait Castle (2) - a photo on Flickriver

Rait Castle (2)

            The late Scottish academic and writer William Douglas Simpson, who focused on the study of medieval architecture and archaeology, in particular that of castles, wrote the following:

"Rait Castle is in every way a most noteworthy building. In fact there is nothing quite like it in Scotland.  It is an excellent and early example of the "palace" plan, introduced into Scotland in the latter part of the fourteenth century.  As the name indicates (palatium in medieval Latin signifies "hall"), this plan consists essentially of a long hall, raised upon storage which may or may not be vaulted, and often, as in the present case, having private accommodation adjoining it in an angle tower."  

He wrote that after visiting Rait in 1937, but was later to revise the date of construction to the very early 14th century.  I notice that the date of construction is now being given as 'late 13th century', but I don't know what the evidence for this is.

Rait was built at a time when Norman style keeps were becoming outdated, much more massive castles were being built in response to improved siege techniques, and tower-houses had not really yet developed.  Rait has some of the features of the great castles in use at the time, but on a much smaller scale.  It wasn't all about security and defence, 'liveability' was also an important design consideration.

Unlike the Norman keeps that preceded it and the tower-houses that followed it, Rait is low, with just two storeys below the main block's parapet and a third storey on the round tower at the south-west angle.  There are no remaining indications of what the ground floor was used for, but Simpson suggests it was storage.  Whatever its use, it was not vaulted and could only be accessed from above - probably by ladder, as there are no indications of stairs.  

The castle's entrance was the large arched doorway seen here, to the right of which can be seen the porter's window.  The doorway was accessed by a timber ramp or stair, that could be removed or burned in the event of an attack, thus keeping attackers and such equipment as battering rams away from the door.  Such defensive features were used in tower-houses over several succeeding centuries, but a far less common feature found here is that this doorway was also defended by a portcullis.  Tower-houses mostly employed hinged iron yetts.

Taken on: May 19, 2019

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Rait Castle

Nairnshire

Morayshire

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