You might think of grim comfortless fortresses with towering stone walls, their stark ruins testimony to centuries of blood drenched war and siege, feud, treachery and intrigue built to defy invaders who want to plunder your lands and wealth.

But this is only one aspect of what a castle actually was. They were also homes, places of comfort and convenience, whose bare stone ruins (aka modern, stripped-back interiors) offer only a glimpse of former richness and sophistication.

Above all they were symbols designed to proclaim the status and power of their builders - to signal ancestral ownership of the land on which they stand and broadcast to all-comers the strength and connection of their builders.

Through new research, Richard will peel away the Victorian and Hollywood fantasy to reveal the true reality of medieval castle living, as fortress, court, centrepiece, fashionable home, place of recreation and leisure, and theatre where Scotland's Kings and Nobles publicly displayed their wealth and power.

He'll overturn the old ideas of a Scotland immersed in poverty and violence, which saw its nobles hide away in cheerless towers for protection from unknown enemies, and instead reveal, the culture, sophistication and international connections of its ambitious and outward-looking Kings and Barons.

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