Interior, basement, South corridor, view from East.

Description Interior, basement, South corridor, view from East.

Date 16/11/1998

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number D 41700

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 767331

Scope and Content Basement Corridor, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway This long narrow tunnel-vaulted basement corridor, which runs the length of the house, probably dates from the construction of the earlier mid-16th-century house. The floor is laid with stone flags, and the walls and ceiling are of whitewashed rough rubble. The numerous small rooms that open off the corridor to the left were used for storage for food and drink, and included cold-rooms, larders, wine and beer cellars, and icehouses. In the late 17th century, the domestic economy of the household required careful management. Meat, fruit and vegetables had to be preserved using the processes of salting, smoking and drying, and stored through the winter. Vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots, were stored in root cellars, and fruit, such as apples that required more ventilation were kept in special 'airy' stores. Carcasses of meat required to be hung, and there were other larders for fish, cheese and butter. There were also 'dry' larders which were more akin to a housekeeper's storeroom, and rooms for keeping ice throughout the year. Wine cellars required to be dry and of an even temperature, and often included a 'wine in the wood cellar' where wine was stored in barrels. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, was built between 1679 and 1690 for William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, incorporating part of a mid-16th-century house and the remains of a late 14th-century Douglas stronghold which originally stood on the site. The architect was almost certainly James Smith who had worked on the construction of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and the Master of Works (builder) was William Lukup. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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