ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN : A SURVEY 63 
by a master of his craft. ‘The use of sandstone is confined to the winding- 
stair steps and the jambs and arch of a fireplace, distinctly Early English 
in style. 
It is impossible definitely to fix the date of Drum Castle. The Forest 
of Drum, one of the royal forests, was erected into a free barony for 
William de Irvin in 1324, and it is believed that the castle existed before 
that date. Richard Cementarius, the King’s master-mason, was in 1272 
alderman of Aberdeen—the earliest recorded name in the line of alder- 
men and provosts—and survived until about 1294. His work inthe North 
of Scotland could hardly have been confined to the castle of Aberdeen ; 
and circumstances connected with him suggest that he may have been 
engaged on the old Bridge of Don, which was built from bishop’s revenues 
in the time of Bishop Chein (1285-1328). An elevation of the bridge is 
very like the cross-section of the third storey of Drum Castle ; and although 
the building of the bridge was interrupted, and not finished until long 
after Richard’s death (and when done, it was credited to King Robert 
the Bruce rather than to Chein), it is probable that Richard Cementarius 
built Drum Castle and began the Bridge of Don. It is true that Drum 
Castle might have been built by Bruce after 1314 and before 1324 ; but a 
date before the death of Alexander III in 1286 seems on the whole to be 
more probable. In any case, the tower of Drum, if only in virtue of its 
material, seems to represent an Aberdeenshire type which influenced the 
technique of our later castles. 
The transference of much wealth from the Church to the lairds was the 
occasion of a great activity in house-building that culminated about 1620, 
and did not quite die away until the end of the seventeenth century. 
Whether again it was of necessity or not, these new Aberdeenshire castles 
were built by local masons, of granite, unless where a sandstone quarry 
was near. Among the most notable examples are Craigievar, Crathes, 
Midmar, Castle Fraser, and Drum. The manner of building, the 
architectural detail and decorative elements are common to all; but 
almost every castle shows distinctive and individual character. That 
the ground-plans are so various is the root cause, each type of plan 
leading to its own characteristic masses and groupings. The simple 
oblong plan developed into L plans of various kinds ; later, under the 
influence of planning for defence by firearms, the stepped plan was 
invented, in which either two or three blocks were joined together on a 
diagonal line, i.e. en échelon. Craigievar and Crathes show different 
modifications of the L type ; Midmar and Castle Fraser are of the three- 
stepped type ; while the House of Drum (1619), connected to the ancient 
_ tower by a short wing is, with excellent judgment, planned as a long and 
comparatively low block between a pair of small square blocks which 
_ project forwards and are tacked on to the main block, ‘ corner to corner,’ 
as in the stepped plan. 
_ Midmar and Castle Fraser were built by members of a local family of 
_ masons named Bel. Castle Fraser, which perhaps is the most representa- 
tive of the group, was signed by I. Bel, master-mason, 1617, just when it 
was nearly finished, as first designed. 
Common to all these castles is the battering of the rubble walls, some- 
