324 ARRAtf. ANTIQUITIES. 



subsidiary apartments or additional houses. In other 

 cases, the buildings occupy more or less of the inner 

 side of a similar enclosure, leaving a small space in 

 the middle. In consequence, apparently, of more recent 

 additions, the area, or the group of building, occasionally 

 assumes a more complex form, but the general style 

 and plan continue the same. In a few instances, as 

 at DunstafTnage and Duart, a sort of bartizan is con- 

 structed on the top of the enclosing wall, for the apparent 

 purpose of defence ; but there are rarely any flanking 

 defences, nor is the gate ever protected by machicolations 

 or lateral towers ; the only internal mode of annoy- 

 ance appearing to be from the windows ; occasionally 

 from loop holes, although even these are uncommon. 

 It does not appear that the bow and arrow was in 

 use among these tribes, a fact somewhat remarkable 

 in the military history of the Celtic nations ; nor, in 

 more recent times, has it appeared that they depended 

 on fire-arms. Excepting the battery on Cairn burg, 

 and a few pieces of ordnance mounted on Duart, on 

 DuBstaffnage, and in one or two other places, the use 

 of heavy guns appears also to have been little known 

 to the Highlanders, even at a late period. It is rare 

 to find any traces of architectural decoration in these 

 buildings, and it is also worthy of remark, that in no 

 instance is there the appearance of chapel or oratory, 

 a feature very prevalent in the ancient castles of Wales 

 and England. Among these chieftains indeed, religion 

 appears, from many other circumstances, to have been 

 an object of very little attention. These remarks, with 

 slight exceptions, apply to the castles of the more 

 powerful chieftains as well as to those of the smaller 

 chiefs; nor is even the majority of the royal castles 

 distinguished by marks of superior wealth, or by con- 

 trivances for better accommodation or more secure defence. 

 In the maritime Highlands, as in the isles, the situation 

 of these buildings is generally on a rock overhanging 



