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A cap-house (sometimes written cap house or caphouse) is a small watch room, built at the top of a spiral staircase, often giving access to a
File:Knock_Castle_4.jpg, Knock Castle, Aberdeenshire, showing the cap-house above the entrance
File:Plunton_Castle_(geograph_4888980).jpg,
File:Balmoral_Castle.jpg,
A cap-house (sometimes written cap house or caphouse) is a small watch room, built at the top of a spiral staircase, often giving access to a parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
on the roof of a tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strate ...
or castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
. They provided protection from the elements by enclosing the top of the stairway, and sometimes incorporated windows or gun loops. They were built in various forms, including square turrets, simple boxes, or small houses with gabled
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...
roofs, which were sometimes large enough to provide accommodation for a look-out.
Cap-houses were an authentic feature of the design of medieval and early-modern tower houses in Scotland, and were a frequent element used in the later Scottish Baronial architecture.
Gallery
Medieval and early-modern cap-houses
Plunton Castle
Plunton Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house between Kirkandrews, Dumfries and Galloway, Kirkandrews and Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built around 1575 for the Clan Lennox, Lennoxes of Plunton, it passed by marriage t ...
, with a gabled cap-house at the top of the stair wing (shown on the right)
File:Rusco_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1240081.jpg, Rusco Tower, with a gabled cap-house on the right, giving access to a parapet around the main roof
File:Barholm_Castle.jpg, Barholm Castle's large cap-house, on the left
File:Sauchie_Tower_-_geograph.org.uk_-_85404.jpg, Sauchie Tower
Sauchie Tower, also known as Devon Tower, is a 15th-century tower house in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The tower is located by the village of Fishcross, north of Sauchie and north of Alloa, close to the River Devon. It is protected as a ...
's cap-house, on the left, is hexagonal
File:Balvaird_Castle.jpg, Balvaird Castle's cap-house, in the middle
File:Fatlips_Castle_2013.JPG, Fatlips Castle's cap-house, on the left, was renovated in 2013
File:Carsluith_Castle.jpg, Carsluith Castle's gabled cap-house, on the right
Nineteenth-century Scottish Baronial cap-houses
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen.
The estate and its original castle were boug ...
, with the Royal Standard of Scotland
The Royal Banner of the Royal Arms of Scotland, also known as the Royal Banner of Scotland, or more commonly the Lion Rampant of Scotland, and historically as the Royal Standard of Scotland, ( gd, Bratach rìoghail na h-Alba, sco, Ryal banner ...
flying from a flagpole mounted on the roof of its cap-house
File:CIMG1495_ScraboHorizView.JPG, Scrabo Tower has a conical cap-house above its spiral staircase, with conical turrets
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* M ...
on the other three corners
File:Friar's_Carse_-_side_tower.jpg, Friars Carse has a circular cap-house giving access to the roof of its tower
See also
* Turret—a tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building * Bartizan—an overhanging projection from the wall of a building *Garret
A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bui ...
—an attic or top floor room in the military sense; a watchtower from the French word ''garite''
References
Castle architecture Fortification (architectural elements) Fortified towers by type {{Scotland-struct-stub