Yett

[10] Exchequer Rolls from 1377 refer to a "fabricated iron gate", part of the defences for David's Tower in Edinburgh Castle.

[15] These were frequently issued with other licenses for defensive features; for example, in 1501 John Murray of Cockpool was given a licence to build a tower at Comlongon with machicolations and "irneztteis and windois".

[16] In August 1548, during the war of the Rough Wooing, Regent Arran slighted Hailes Castle so the English could not use it by removing the iron gates or yetts.

[17] After an attack on the principal yett of the House of Kinblethmont near Arbroath, in December 1602 James VI of Scotland recognised the threat posed to security by the increasing use of explosive petards, no-one can now "assure his own safety and preservation within his own houses and iron yetts".

Consequently, the Privy Council ordered that all yetts should be removed from all houses belonging to those lower in rank than barons.

[19] In Scotland, yetts were traditionally made using a "through and through" construction, with both horizontal and vertical bars either woven alternatively around or through each other, creating a structure almost impossible to dismantle.

[21] It is likely the craft spread south from Tyrol to the Venetian Republic, but little apparent connection to the earlier Scottish technology, although there was some trade between Scotland and Germany.

[23] A blacksmith in Elgin called George Robertson made a new iron yett for the great tower at Kilravock in February 1568.