posted 02-22-2002 02:09 AM
That link should be; http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/ Almost all of the buildings on that site I have looked at could not even be considered as remotely castle-like. You're probably better off looking at the real ones for inspiration.
The problem with trying to build a house that looks like a castle is that, the more 'real' you want your castle to look, the less liveable it will be.
Castles were built primarily for defence and therefore usefull things such as windows had to be left out or made very small in most of the buildings.
It is not untill after castles became obsolete(late 15th century) as a good means of defence that the emphasis moved from defence to habitation. Castles were either abandoned or rebuilt to allow the owners such comforts as ease of access, windows, large gardens and a view of things other than defensive walls.
So, the best advice I could give you is to first decide what it is about castles that you want in your building. If you can't figure that out, spend a lot of time on the web looking for your ideal castle, or elements of it and think about how that could be recreated.
It's always best to go an architect with firm ideas about what you want.
One suggestion I would make is that you check out medieval houses, churches and other town buildings as well as later castles to see if you might be able to incorporate elements from these more appropriate buildings, such as stone arches, timber framed walls, complex wooden roof framing, natural materials such as slate and stone, thick walls as well as columns, buttresses and so on. You may be able to get the feel and look you want, particularly internally, without having to resort to trying to recreate a building type unsuitable for habitation.
Erik