There’s only one way in to Lochranza Castle.

 

From a distance the walls of the defensive tower house look completely blank.  When the original hall house was built, in the early 1300s, the way in was through a first floor doorway on the seaward side, probably reached by a ladder or wooden stair.

 

When the original hall house was converted to a tower house in the 1500s, the original door was blocked and a new ground level door was added, facing the landward causeway.

 

The castle is built from two different kids of stone; hard, grey-green schist for most of the walls with a more easily worked sandstone for the door and window surrounds. Seen up close, the contrast of these two local stones is very attractive.  The weathered pink sandstone could almost be described as pretty, though that won’t have been the builder’s intention.

A post for Thursday Doors.