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Dounreay Castle
Dounreay Castle is a ruined 16th-century L-plan castle, about west of Thurso, Highland (council area), Scotland, within the grounds of Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment. It is also known as Dounreay House. The castle and its associated structures are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. History The castle is thought to date from the latter part of the 16th century. It was a property of the Sinclairs, the owner in 1614 being William Sinclair of Dunbeath, while in 1726 it was one of the lodgings of the Earl of Caithness. Ownership passed to the Forbeses, to the Mackays of Reay, and then to the Mackays of Tongue. Occupation continued until 1863, but the castle was unroofed and ruinous by 1910. The site was used a farm, with the courtyard being the farmyard, with the first of two ranges of cottages possibly being added south east of the castle in the 17th century. Cromwellian troops were housed in the castle in the mid-17th century. The site was leveled with the exception ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L-plan Castle
An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other locations. The evolution of its design was an expansion of the blockhouse or simple square tower from the Early Middle Ages. As building techniques improved, it became possible to construct a larger building footprint and a more complex shape than the simple blockhouse tower. A more compelling motivation for the L plan was the ability to defend the entrance door by providing covering fire from the adjacent walls. This stratagem was particularly driven by the advent of cannon used by attackers. It was common for the union of the two wings to have very thick wall construction to support a major defensive tower in the union area. For example, the stone walls of Muchalls Castle in Scotland are over 14 feet thick at the ground level. Built in the 13t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cottage
A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide some form of service to the Lord of the manor, manorial lord.Daniel D. McGarry, ''Medieval history and civilization'' (1976) p 242 However, in time cottage just became the general term for a small house. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location and not necessarily in England. The cottage orné, often quite large and grand residences built by the nobility, dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th century during the Romantic movement. In British English the term now denotes a small dwelling of traditional build, although it can also be applied to modern construction designed to resemble traditional houses ("wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castles In Great Britain And Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 1050s, the Normans began to build motte and bailey and ringwork castles in large numbers to control their newly occupied territories in England and the Welsh Marches. During the 12th century the Normans began to build more castles in stone – with characteristic square keep – that played both military and political roles. Royal castles were used to control key towns and the economically important forests, while baronial castles were used by the Norman lords to control their widespread estates. David I invited Anglo-Norman lords into Scotland in the early 12th century to help him colonise and control areas of his kingdom such as Galloway; the new lords brought castle technologies with them and wooden castles began to be established over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordnance Survey
, nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , jurisdiction = Great BritainThe Ordnance Survey deals only with maps of Great Britain, and, to an extent, the Isle of Man, but not Northern Ireland, which has its own, separate government agency, the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. , headquarters = Southampton, England, UK , region_code = GB , coordinates = , employees = 1,244 , budget = , minister1_name = , minister1_pfo = , chief1_name = Steve Blair , chief1_position = CEO , agency_type = , parent_agency = , child1_agency = , keydocument1 = , website = , footnotes = , map = , map_width = , map_caption = Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and a concave ''runner stone'' that rotates. The movement of the runner on top of the bedstone creates a "scissoring" action that grinds grain trapped between the stones. Millstones are constructed so that their shape and configuration help to channel ground flour to the outer edges of the mechanism for collection. The runner stone is supported by a cross-shaped metal piece (millrind or rynd) fixed to a "mace head" topping the main shaft or spindle leading to the driving mechanism of the mill (wind, water (including tide) or other means). History The earliest evidence for stones used to grind food is found in northern Australia, at the Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land, dating back around 60,000 years. Grinding stones or grindston ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barmkin
Barmkin, also spelled barmekin or barnekin, is a Scots word which refers to a form of medieval and later defensive enclosure, typically found around smaller castles, tower houses, pele towers, and bastle houses in Scotland and the north of England. It has been suggested that etymologically the word may be a corruption of the word ''barbican'' or ''berm''. The barmkin would have contained ancillary buildings, and could be used to protect cattle during raids. In 1535 a Parliament of James V of Scotland enacted that "every landed man dwelling in the inland or upon the borders having there a hundred pound land of new extent shall build a sufficient barmkin upon his heritage and lands in the most suitable place, of stone and lime, containing three score foot of the square, one ell thick and six ells high, for the protection and defence of him, his tenants and their goods in troublesome times, with a tower in the same for himself if he thinks it expedient." Places which had barmkins i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concave Polygon
A simple polygon that is not convex is called concave, non-convex or reentrant. A concave polygon will always have at least one reflex interior angle—that is, an angle with a measure that is between 180 degrees and 360 degrees exclusive. Polygon Some lines containing interior points of a concave polygon intersect its boundary at more than two points. Some diagonals of a concave polygon lie partly or wholly outside the polygon. Some sidelines of a concave polygon fail to divide the plane into two half-planes one of which entirely contains the polygon. None of these three statements holds for a convex polygon. As with any simple polygon, the sum of the internal angles of a concave polygon is ×(''n'' − 2) radians, equivalently 180×(''n'' − 2) degrees (°), where ''n'' is the number of sides. It is always possible to partition a concave polygon into a set of convex polygons. A polynomial-time algorithm for finding a decomposition into as few convex polyg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the great hall was the largest room in castles and large houses, and where the servants usually slept. As more complex house plans developed, the hall remained a large room for dancing and large feasts, often still with servants sleeping there. It was usually immediately inside the main door. In modern British houses, an entrance hall next to the front door remains an indispensable feature, even if it is essentially merely a corridor. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor (from Spanish ''corredor'' used in El Escorial and 100 years later in Castle H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scale-and-platt
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage to the other level by stepping from one to another step in turn. Steps are very typically rectangular. Stairs may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles. Types of stairs include staircases (also called stairways), ladders, and escalators. Some alternatives to stairs are elevators (also called lifts), stairlifts, inclined moving walkways, and ramps. A stairwell is a vertical shaft or opening that contains a staircase. A flight (of stairs) is an inclined part of a staircase consisting of steps (and their lateral supports if supports are separate from steps). Components and terms A ''stair'', or a ''stairstep'', is one step in a flight of stairs.R.E. Putnam and G.E. Carlson, ''Architectural a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamb
A jamb (from French ''jambe'', "leg"), in architecture, is the side-post or lining of a doorway or other aperture. The jambs of a window outside the frame are called “reveals.” Small shafts to doors and windows with caps and bases are known as “jamb-shafts”; when in the inside arris of the jamb of a window, they are sometimes called "scoinsons." A doorjamb, door jamb (also sometimes doorpost) is the vertical portion of the door frame onto which a door is secured. The jamb bears the weight of the door through its hinges, and most types of door latches and deadbolts extend into a recess in the doorjamb when engaged, making the accuracy of the plumb (i.e. true vertical) and strength of the doorjambs vitally important to the overall operational durability and security of the door. The word ''jamb'' is also used to describe a wing of a building, perhaps just in Scottish architecture. John Adam added a 'jamb' to the old Leith Customs house in the Citadel of Leith in 1754–1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, first as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and then as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, he ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658. Cromwell nevertheless remains a deeply controversial figure in both Britain and Ireland, due to his use of the military to first acquire, then retain political power, and the brutality of his 1649 Irish campaign. Educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Cromwell was elected MP for Huntingdon in 1628, but the first 40 years of his life were undistinguished and at one point he contemplated emigration to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tongue (Highland)
Tongue ( gd, Tunga from non, Tunga) is a coastal village in northwest Highland, Scotland, in the western part of the former county of Sutherland. It lies on the east shore above the base of the Kyle of Tongue and north of the mountains Ben Hope and Ben Loyal on the A836. To the north lies the area of Braetongue. Tongue is the main village in a series of crofting townships that runs through Coldbackie, Dalharn, Blandy, and the harbour of Scullomie to the deserted township of Slettel. The village includes a youth hostel, a craft shop, a general store and garage, a bank, a post office and two hotels, the Tongue Hotel and the Ben Loyal Hotel. It is connected to the west side of the Kyle by the Kyle of Tongue Bridge and Causeway, built in 1971. Toponymy Contrary to popular belief, the name Tongue does not refer to the shape of the Kyle of Tongue (though the kyle ''can'' be described as "tongue-shaped"). Rather it is a geographical term in Old Norse which refers to a piece of la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
