Their ultimate aim is to replicate a medieval Motte and Bailey Fort as an interactive educational visitor attraction. The idea behind the project is to provide groups, individuals and school parties an arena in which a medieval reenactment will capture the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community.
Once completed the Trust intend to use this development as a centre from which to base their work with the local community and educational institutions, whilst also offering a great forum for companies to entertain clients and employees alike through a medieval reenactment or any of our highland living history and events. The Film and TV industries will also find the project useful as a "set".
It is being built by volunteers and is a massive project. The size and scale of this has to be seen to be believed.
At present only the perimeter wall is under construction and it is hoped that this will be completed by the Spring of 2011.
Work will then start on the interior.
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle situated on a raised earthwork and surrounded by a protective fence. Many were built in Britain, Ireland and France in the 11th and 12th centuries, favoured as a relatively cheap but effective defensive fortification that could be built very quickly and repel most small attacks.
A motte is a mound, often artificial, topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep. The earth for the mound would be taken from a ditch, dug around the motte or around the whole castle. The outer surface of the mound could be covered with clay or strengthened with wooden supports. Most were originally topped with wooden structures, which could be built with readily available materials and without highly skilled labour, although many such structures were later replaced with stone keeps.
A bailey is an enclosed courtyard, typically surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade which would be overlooked by the motte.
It was usually used as a living area by servants who served the lord of the castle or farmers, Inside the bailey was also a blacksmith, a miller and most of the necessary craftsmen of this age.