ABSTRACT
The Tudor period ended the era of the English castle, but in Scotland the castle had still a full century or more of vigorous life before it. Between the accession of James I in 1406, and the Union of the Crowns under James VI and I in 1603, only one Scottish monarch died peacefully in his bed—and he, it is said, of a broken heart. The course taken by the Reformation north of the Border also made for instability in Scotland. The builder of Noltland Castle was Gilbert Balfour of Westray, one of the worst thugs in Scotland during the troubled times of Queen Mary. In old English houses the upper storeys often oversail on timber bracketing. In Scotland, where wood was scarce, this over-sailing was managed by means of stone corbelling, and this became a characteristic feature of the latest Scottish castles.
