Early firearms and their influence on the military and domestic architecture of the Borders

Abstract

Firearms came late to Scotland, although first used there by the English in 1327. The earliest use by the Scots was of large cannon in siege warfare "Mons Meg" was used at Threave in 1455, and later the castle's outer curtain was rebuilt with handgun slits in the wall and gunholes in the corner "rounds". The typical oval-mouthed gunhole, with hourglass section, appears c 1540, usually one per wallface, although occasionally overlapping fields of fire were arranged at different levels (Damelzier, Littledean). A re-examination of Amisfield Tower shows that the basement is of early date, gunholes being contrived by widening the lighting slits to give the appearance of a good traverse (studied in other towers). By 1600 the basement gunhole was going out of favour, although the inconspicuous muskethole continued to be used in upper walling. D F R