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

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