posted 05-29-2000 07:25 PM           

Stone floors can only span a limited space without support, and are much thicker than wood floors so they take up a lot more space than a wooden floor. However, in some areas the fire resistance of stone made it worthwhile to put stone floors in. The floors of some great halls are of stone since, 1. the space below was used for storage and the pillars where less of a problem, and 2. The fire(s) in the great hall burnt long and were, sometimes, in the center of the room and 3. a lord had the best possible floor in a hall to show how powerful and wealthy he was.
In some late castles floors were made of brick vaults, with very much the same problems and benefits of stone.

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And as I rode by Dalton-Hall Beneath the turrets high, A maiden on the castle-wall Was singing merrily: The Outlaw by Sir Walter Scott
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/index.html

posted 05-31-2000 01:59 AM            

Nearly all Scottish Castles are constructed of stone (including the later manor house 'castles'). In most cases (except for corners and the surrounds of windows and doors) undressed stone was used for the outer skin of walls with a stone rubble infilling.

Just in case it really is floors (as in the type one walks upon) you are interested in, most Scottish towers have stone floors on the basement level with a stone vault above forming a stone floor for the first floor - often these were flagstoned. The material used for the remaining floors was typically oak for the main beams (although pine is not uncommon) with cross-beams and boards usually made of oak also (again, many used pine because of its ready availability). I have seen several castles with oak main beams combined with pine boarding above.

At Castle Levan, the lower two floors are stone flagged, the upper floors have massive pine beams with pitch-pine cross-beams topped with teak boards. The use of teak for the boards is not so surprising when one considers that Levan is in close proximity to one of Scotland's historic ship-building and timber importing areas. Teak was (and still is) valued highly in marine construction for its durability, in particular its resistance to water damage (foul weather is the other thing for which our area is notorious).