Magical mystical history tour of Caithness castle for forthcoming film and computer game
A recce trip by a Manchester media company focussed on the ruins of Castle Sinclair-Girnigoe near Wick and its possible connections with the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail.
Nathan Newman, from Pathway, is a producer whose 20-year career spans video game development and film production and he recently visited the haunting ruins of the 15th century castle at Noss Head.
"It seems such a mystical place with a lot of character," said Nathan as he looked at the castle for the first time.
"We've been looking at virtual versions of the same location for a couple of years now but to come here for the first time is quite surreal. Today, we're doing a research trip, capturing a lot of photography and videography of the location so that we can do more in-depth visual development for a video game that we're making and the feature film that we're working on."
The project is based around the recently published novel Questus by Shawn Williamson which mixes mystical elements from Caithness' past, the Knights Templar and a global conspiracy by a group of industrialists who are trying to conform the whole world's population using artificial intelligence.
"The film will be live action and uses LED screens as a replacement to green screen technology. At the moment, we're planning to use the present day version of Sinclair castle rather than recreate it as it was centuries before." Nathan is using "photogrammetry and lidar scanning" techniques to make digital copies of the castle and its surroundings for building game worlds and visual effects. "Our aim is to bottle the magic of Shawn's writing with the majesty and adventure of the northern coast of Scotland for new audiences."
Shawn Williamson knows the castle well, having helped with restoration of the site in his role as a master stonemason and sculptor. "I lived at Noss Head in 2016 for six months and that's where the beginnings of Questus really started. I was involved, in the early days, as a consultant in the restoration of the castle."
Questus is described as a "modern-day medieval thriller" in which Angus MacWilliam has a neurological disorder which enables him to take on the "dark technocratic forces of the New Babylonians" by discovering that he is a reincarnated Grail Knight. The New Babylonians put profit before God to the detriment of the natural order of the Earth. The novel posits Sinclair-Girnigoe as once being the headquarters of a mythical Templar Order called Questus.
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Shawn admits to being enthralled by the ruined castle and its possible relationship with the Knights Templar. Many say there are direct connections between Sinclair-Girnigoe and Rosslyn Chapel which featured in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The ancient Midlothian chapel was believed by many to house the Holy Grail. The venerated object is even believed by some to be hidden deep within the ruins of Castle Sinclair-Girnigoe.
"It's bewitched me and there are others who feel the same and it makes them want to come and live here," Shawn said during the recce trip as a mist descended, giving an unsettling atmosphere to the foreboding structure. "There's so much legend and mystery surrounding the place and people really need to know more about it," added Nathan.
Together with production coordinator, Lois Stevenson, the trio made careful observations of the ancient castle, along with the surrounding countryside and cliffs, and recorded these with high-tech camera equipment. The digital scans of the landscape and the ruins of Sinclair-Girnigoe Castle at Noss Head will be used in the development of the computer game and film project. They also took along a stone sword, sculpted by Shawn, that appears in Questus and bears the name of God in Hebrew script. It is based on the design of an ancient Knights Templar sword discovered in Scotland.
The team believe that the castle ruins could become a major global tourist draw after the video game is produced. Shawn says that there will be seven books in the Questus series and he hopes that the books, film and computer game will reignite interest in further restoration work at the castle and that a special trust could be formed for this purpose.
Questus is available to buy on Amazon and at shawnwilliamson.com.
Anyone interested in more information can contact Shawn through his website link above.
