It defended the north-east from marauding Vikings and held firm against Cromwell’s army – now a modern battle is coming to one of the region’s best-known landmarks.
Computer game enthusiasts will be able to fight the enemy at Dunnottar Castle when one of the most hotly-anticipated titles of the year is released next month.
The US developer of Call of Duty: Ghosts has revealed it took inspiration from the dramatic Aberdeenshire setting for one of the game’s levels.
Named Stonehaven, the background map allows players to fight in and around ruins that have a more than passing resemblance to the fortress near the coastal town. Kyle Walker, public relations manager for Activision Blizzard in California, the parent company of developers Infinity Ward, said: “That map took some very interesting turns in design.
“It was originally an African seaside with the rusty hulks of grounded ships which felt too familiar to previous games. So we began searching for new inspiration. We then went with a look based on the area at the end of the movie Skyfall.
“But we wanted more interesting landmarks, which led us to having a castle and making it more based on what people might expect from a Scottish coastal town. And so it was Dunnottar Castle and surrounding area that provided much of the inspiration for the final look.” The Call of Duty series – and its Medal of Honour predecessor – is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, selling hundreds of millions of copies.
Staff at Dunnottar say the news has been a complete, albeit welcome, surprise and that they had no idea about it.
Wendy Sylvester, castle custodian, said: “It’s not often that I don’t know what to say, but on this occasion I am genuinely speechless.
“We are flattered that the developers thought Dunnottar was interesting and dramatic enough to put it into the game.
“It is a nice surprise although, not being gamers, I don’t know if we will actually play it, but it is additional recognition of the castle’s popularity. We are now winding down after our busiest summer season ever having drawn around 6,500 more visitors than last year – and maybe next year we will get some gamer tourists to the castle.”
Stonehaven and Lower Deeside councillor Graeme Clark said: “Dunnottar has been prominent recently as it was used as inspiration for one of the settings in the film Brave. The castle has a violent past itself with the various battles it has witnessed, which is all part of its history. Games can be very popular and as long as there is not too much gratuitous violence I welcome any publicity.”
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