In 1976-8, the hatch between kitchen and passage was found, through which the cooks could hand food to the waiting servants. Beside the fire, there was evidence for a sway, a moveable bracket to hold cooking pots, and in the chimney itself there is a smoking board, for hams. The room in the corner was for the cook, and has a drain for waste water. The newly restored stair to the first floor from the room at the south end of the passage was for the servants.
The main stair leads to all the upper floors of the castle. The whole of the first floor was occupied by the great hall, the main room in which the whole household dined once a day. Its importance is shown by the finely-moulded stone fireplace surround, placed in the side wall to heat as much of the room as possible. Draughts were reduced by a wooden screen across the "low" or entrance end, roughly on the line of the new kitchen counter. Another screen may have run back from this to enclose a lobby at the head of the stair, and at the same time hide a servery at the top of the little back stair. Servants bringing food from the kitchen would have waited there, in what is now the kitchen, before entering in procession to serve the high table.
When the Castle was built, the windows would have been much smaller. They were enlarged in the 18th century, when the owners of many tower houses tried to make them more comfortable, without going to the expense of rebuilding. New pine panelling was fitted at the same time. Some of this was still there when drawings were made of the Castle in 1898, and was extremely fine, with rich mouldings, and pilasters, or flat columns, on either side of the windows. Originally, the walls would have been hung with woven cloths or tapestries.
In the north-west corner at the "high" end of the hall, a door leads to another stair, which has been completely rebuilt, having been removed long ago. This was for the private use of the laird and his family. It led only to the two floors above, on which were bedchambers and, no doubt, a private parlour. The partitions on both these floors disappeared long ago, so we don't know exactly how they were arranged. There must have been at least two rooms on each floor, because there are fireplaces at both ends, as well as two garderobes, or privies, in the thickness of the wall. These might have opened off closets, as they now open off the new bathrooms.
On the second floor, it was possible to put the new partition between the south bedroom and the passage exactly in the right place, because the drawings of 1898 show the end wall to have been panelled to that point. This panelling, while not as grand as that of the hall, was also of very good quality. It would have been too expensive to replace the panelling, but the sitting room has been decorated with hand-painted garlands.
Under the steeply-pitched roof of the stair tower is a small chamber or caphouse, reached by its own turret stair. A door from this turret also leads into a large attic in the main part of the house, which was probably where the servants slept. This attic is now kept locked, to provide a safe roost for the three varieties of bat which in the past had the whole Castle as their home.