page_title: Scotland in the Middle Ages
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Scotland in the Middle Ages / Culture / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Linlithgow Palace Looking south-east towards the Palace with the loch behind me.
context_page_description: Scotland in the Middle Ages concerns the history of Scotland from the departure of the Romans to the adoption of major aspects of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century.
  From the fifth century northern Britain was divided into a series of petty kingdoms. Of these the four most important to emerge were the Picts, the Gaels of Dál Riata, the Britons of Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, later taken over by Northumbria. After the arrival of the Vikings in the late eighth century, Scandinavian rulers and colonies were established along parts of the coasts and in the islands.
  In the ninth century the Scots and Picts combined under the House of Alpin to form a single Kingdom of Alba, with a Pictish base and dominated by Gaelic culture. After the reign of King David I in the twelfth century, the Scottish monarchs are best described as Scoto-Norman, preferring French culture to native Scottish culture. Alexander II and his son Alexander III, were able to regain the remainder of the western seaboard, cumulating the Treaty of Perth with Norway in 1266.
context_section_description: Medieval vernacular architecture utilised local building materials, including cruck  constructed houses, turf walls and clay, with a heavy reliance on stone. As burghs developed there were more sophisticated houses for the nobles, burgesses and other inhabitants. By the end of the period some were stone built with slate roofs or tiles. Medieval parish church architecture was typically simpler than in England, with many churches remaining simple oblongs, without transepts and aisles, and often without towers. From the eleventh century there were influences from English and continental European designs and grander ecclesiastical buildings were built in the Romanesque style, as can be seen at Dunfermline Abbey and Elgin Cathedral, and later the Gothic style as at Glasgow Cathedral and in the rebuilding of Melrose Abbey. From the early fifteenth century the introduction of Renaissance styles included the selective return of Romanesque forms, as in the nave of Dunkeld Cathedral and in the chapel of Bishop Elphinstone's Kings College, Aberdeen (1500–09). Many of the motte and bailey castles introduced into Scotland with feudalism in the twelfth century and the castles "enceinte", with a high embattled curtain wall that replaced those still in occupation, were slighted during the Wars of Independence. In the late Middle Ages new castles were built, some on a grander scale as "livery and maintenance" castles, to house retained troops. Gunpowder weaponry fundamentally altered the nature of castle architecture, with existing castles being adapted to allow the use of gunpowder weapons by the incorporation of "keyhole" gun ports, platforms to mount guns and walls being adapted to resist bombardment. Ravenscraig, Kirkcaldy, begun about 1460, is probably the first castle in the British Isles to be built as an artillery fort, incorporating "D-shape" bastions that would better resist cannon fire and on which artillery could be mounted. The largest number of late medieval fortifications in Scotland built by nobles were of the tower house design. primarily aimed to provide protection against smaller raiding parties, rather than a major siege. Extensive building and rebuilding of royal palaces in the Renaissance style probably began under James III and accelerated under James IV. Linlithgow was first constructed under James I, under the direction of master of work John de Waltoun and was referred to as a palace, apparently the first use of this term in the country, from 1429. This was extended under James III and began to correspond to a fashionable quadrangular, corner-towered Italian signorial palace, combining classical symmetry with neo-chivalric imagery.
caption: Linlithgow Palace, the first building to bear that title in Scotland, extensively rebuilt along Renaissance principles from the fifteenth century
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