It is said that we all return to our childhood dreams in our later years and
it would seem that, in his sixties, the Rev John Patrick Wright has done
just that.
In 1991, he and his family acquired a pile of picturesque ruins and a couple
of cottages outside Falkirk, and his dreams became a reality. The
restoration and recreation took six long years and Plane Castle was finally
complete in 1997.
John grew up in East Lothian with a passion for castles. Many hours and days
were spent cycling around the county exploring the numerous examples, both
habitable and ruinous.
He admits that he should be living in a “sensible place” in central Scotland
instead of here, but says that his wife, Nancy, is very supportive and that
the whole adventure has been a family affair, also combining the talents of
his three sons — David, Neil and Bruce.
When the couple bought Plane there were cows grazing right up to the door, and
they had to cut their way in through the tangle of brambles and nettles. The
surrounding terraces had been flattened and the mill pond had disappeared
under centuries of silt.
There are glimpses of what would have been the offices and orchards around the
castle. Dwellings of this size and stature needed rooms for brewing,
spinning, laundry and food storage, while other rooms housed domestic
servants and the army of workers needed for the smooth running of an estate.
These would have formed a courtyard or series of yardis (from the French
“jardin”). With so many layers of history to uncover, the Wrights have taken
their inspiration from many sources.
A sketch in 1790 shows the ruined tower and just a wall of the Hall House left
standing, with the cottage in a habitable state. A scion of clan Menzies,
Sir David Menzies, restored the tower in 1908 but by the 1930s it was again
ruinous and had to wait until the 1990s, when the Wright family came along,
for its next incarnation.
The challenge attached to a project of this size becomes clearer when you look
at the materials required. It took 90 tons of cobbles to pave the impressive
entrance to Plane Castle, all laid by the reverend and his three sons.
Myriad other building materials included two container loads of sandstone
from India (cut to size from drawings provided by Bruce, an architect, for
corbelling), lintels, sills and the fireplace in the great hall. Where they
found the original stones they have been left uncovered, and elsewhere
modern building materials have been covered with plaster to recreate the
period feel of each building. Castles lend themselves to flights of fancy —
this one has wheel stairs, first-floor entrances, guardrobes, arrow slits,
and balconies galore.
The surrounding 3½-acre grounds have also been much embellished with
sculptures and follies for both humans and livestock — the ducks and geese
that inhabit the eight ponds have their own islands for fox-free nesting.
A boathouse is based on one at Glencoe House and there is a “baby” version of
Charles Jencks’ Earthworks, echoing that found at Edinburgh’s National
Gallery of Modern Art. To the delight of visiting children, John has built a
hobbit house, and for his older visitors there is a grotto, various summer
houses, a Japanese tea house and a bandstand.
The courtyard complex is B-listed and comprises the tower and the Hall House,
which are used as holiday lets; each have four bedrooms. The 16th-century
cottage on the south side, where the Wrights live, has three bedrooms. Below
is the site of the medieval mill, which has planning permission for a
four-bedroom house beside the restored mill pond.
The Hall House makes up the west range. The kitchen is barrel vaulted and the
vast fireplace would have been able to hold a spit large enough to roast an
ox and beside it the bread oven would have been in daily use. A small window
adjacent to it has a slanting sill so that water could have been poured into
the kitchen from the outside. The original stones have been left exposed
while any patching and re-creation has been finished with white painted
plaster.
The vaulted store rooms now house a sitting room and dining room, which leads
the way upstairs to the great hall. In 1900 Menzies had a garden in there,
but it is now a magnificent family room that runs the length of the
building. The huge fireplace has been recreated in Indian sandstone, while
the panelling for the window embrasures came from Easy architectural salvage
in Edinburgh.
The tower, built in 1430, has quite a different atmosphere — it is smaller and
more intimate with the original fireplace in the first-floor hall. The
painted ceilings in here were decorated by architect John Wetten Brown.
Climbing up past the bedroom floors you reach the top floor, the whole of
which is a startling Edwardian room put there by Menzies. It has a
spectacular 360-degree view — as does the walkway on the roof above — of
Edinburgh, Stirling, Airth, and Torwood and Carnock castles.
Not content to retire completely, the Wrights have joined a creative writers’
group. Nancy is busy with some short stories, while John hopes that his
murder stories will find an audience.
After all, there is the story of those who murdered James Somervell of Plane
receiving an indemnity from James V in 1525, exonerating them for this
“pre-meditated felony of slaughter”. Nobody knows exactly why, but the money
paid in compensation is said to have financed the building of Hall House in
1527.
“One of the advantages of a re-creation is that you can improve on history,”
the reverend says. And there is no doubt that this is the perfect setting
for a murder mystery.
John and Nancy Patrick Wright, 01786 480 840, www.planecastle.co.uk. Plane
Castle is for Disale with Rettie at offers over £1.5m