High up in the Mountains of what is today the Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus the three ancient Castles of Kantara, Buffavento & St. Hilarion overlook the Mesaoria plain & the Karpaz peninsula, all of which was once occupied by invading Arabs. The Castles served as refuge from invaders, and vantage points from which to light warning beacons to alert the islands inhabitants of imminent attack from across the sea.
Each Castle has its own unique atmosphere and commands stunning views across the island to the South, East & West, and across to the Turkish mainland to the North. Today they are ruins, Ghosts of their former glory, populated by tourists and goats instead of Kings, Queens, resistance fighters & Richard the Lion hearts Crusader Knights.
On many recent Cycling trips to the region I have climbed to each Castle many times on my bicycle, and by foot to the summits. The stories the Castle walls could tell will remain secret forever, but intrigue me never the less.
Solo cycling high up along the Mountain ridge feeds ones imagination and so it was that these three amazing Castles set my musical muse alight.
Each Castle inspired its own song. Each song was written in the small village of Iskele within sight of Kantara castle.
Much as each Castle has its own story & is linked to the others via ancient mountain trails and burning beacon fires, I wanted each of the three songs to tell its own story, but link together. The stories told in the lyrics are a figment of my imagination, born out of a lone cyclists daydreams riding alone in the Mountains after over fifty ascents to the Castles.
The trilogy is told by the Kings messenger, a bearded battle hardened sword wielding warrior who is sent from the Kings royal apartments at St. Hilarion Castle to oversee things at Buffavento & Kantara & report back to the King for further royal command.

St. Hilarion is the most Westerly of the three Castles and over looks what is now the town of Girne (Kyrenia). This is where the King had his royal apartments, and held court. The Castle is nothing less than a small town on top of the world, with its busy market square, royal kitchens and stables etc. It was from here that he ruled still, in defiance of the invading Arabs below.



Buffavento is between St. Hilarion & Kantara, & was built on a Mountain cliff top in defiance of the eternal & continuous powerful winds that blow there. At the summit I once shouted out across the island below ‘I’m on top of the World’ and heard my voice echo, seemingly forever, across the plain below. Here I could imagine the ancient call to prayer being sung from the Castle walls, echoing & calling those below to join the rebel stronghold at Buffavento & defy the occupying Arab armies.



Kantara is the furthest East of the three Castles, and was in part built by Richard the Lion heart on his crusades. Here legend has it that the Queen, unable to afford to pay her builders for work they had done on the Castle walls, threw them to their deaths from her bedroom walls. Quite what they were doing in her bedroom isn’t mentioned in the legend. She did then throw herself to her death from the same window however.
Allowing my imagination to wander as I wrote the lyrics for each song, I surmised that the King of St. Hilarion had banished his ‘ex’, the crazy Queen from St. Hilarion to Kantara to remove her madness (& likely witchcraft) from his court. This left him in need of a new Queen.
Buffavento was an extremely remote fortress in need of a strong trustworthy garrison to protect it & ensure the warning beacon was lit on sight of the beacon from Kantara, to warn the King at St.Hilarion of pending attacks from the East.
And so it was that the King sent his messenger down to the Arab occupied lowlands, under cover of darkness, to tell how as a younger man he himself had climbed to the Mountain fortresses, to defy the Arab hoards & recruit the men of the low lands as rebel soldiers for the Kings garrison at Buffavento, warn the local builders not to quote for the Kantara job and, while he was there, pick up the best looking young Girl he could find and bring her back to St. Hilarion to be the Kings new Bride.

Musically these are heavy rock songs. The castles are strong, heavy fortresses built out of the Mountain rock. Their occupants were tough hardy survivors, they had to be. Turkish, Arab and Eastern influence oozes from the entire area, so I chose to reflect this in the modal tonality of my writing & playing.
Although these stories are to my knowledge not based on reality, they grew in my mind as I was riding my bicycle day after day after day to these Castles. They are real to me