Almondsey mysteriously vanished a few years ago, apparently sunk beneath the north Atlantic, but it is suspected in some quarters that it fell into some sort of time warp engineered by their evil arch-enemies the Norwegians. There have been trickles of communication from Almondsey Radio/Telegraph -- apparently legitimate from its call signs and station ID (and nobody but an Estalian could ever spell this out in Morse code):
Estalianenulel-Rädiøwavenkürzenbløgenheimschitzlöögeskeften-kerbløg,
which was in fact the official broadcasting company of Almondsey; however, those who have received these messages (obviously) have been interviewed, but seem exclusively, when not proven cranks, to have been drunk on a combination of Aquavit and single malt Scots whisky from Skye (Arisaig mainland brew only). This is being researched. In the meantime, the following information, obviously from a pre-inundation guide book, was transferred, perhaps as a test of communications devices. Luckily, it was transmitted in English.
|
The ground floor is taken up on the west and south sides by 'services' (larder, kitchen, servery, scullery, servants' hall in the SW tower, and the estate offices. There are three entrances -- a slype leading to the promenade called the Bulwark, a porch stairway up to the Great Hall, and a vaulted passage (with the porter's lodge and a guardroom in the SE tower). The east side consists of a bar and a large game room, for billiards, cards, etc., leading up to the Keep tower, which at this level contains the library and a study; there is a 'moat', actually a goldfish-pond, around the base of the keep. The northern wing consists of private lodgings, including the children's nursery. In the interior of the building there is a grassy courtyard surrounded by a cloister. Note the four spiral stairs at the corners, two serving the towers for their full height, two the lodgings; the keep has its own separate staircase. |
|
The first floor has another set of lodgings on the north, the main withdrawing room on the west, a private dining room in the SW tower, and the Great Hall along the south side. At the dais end (over the entrance vault) is a door leading to the butler's quarters in the SE tower. The east wing contains a trophy room and the lord's sitting room. This floor of the keep has the lord's audience chamber and a chapel. Along the northern side of the cloister is the Long Gallery, with many paintings. Note that the cloister passages on the east and west sides are not continued at this level. Main entry to the Great Hall is from the staircase to the outside of the building, but it is also accessible to the kitchen by way of the small dining room and an arcade into the cloister passage via a servery area (with a dumbwaiter) into the withdrawing room; in addition there is a staircase to the lower cloister passage leading down from the dais directly to the service wing. |
|
The southern towers are occupied at this level by the housekeeper and the castellan, respectively. Between the two, apart from small turret closets, stretches the roof of the Great Hall (which room is the equivalent of two stories tall). The northern and southern cloister walks at this stage are roofed over to form a kind of parapet walk overlooking the Garth. A long room on the west side is a dormitory for housemaids with a linen closet/sewing room at the north end (male servants, apart from personages such as the butler and the castellan live elsewhere on the grounds of the estate, over the stables and in the Outer Gate). The lodging wing, as usual, contains a suite (two bedrooms and a sitting room) at the west, and two bedrooms at the east. North of the castellan's room is the armoury, or gun room. |