Who are we?
We are the Clanranald Trust for Scotland, an educational Charity based in Central Scotland, Stirling. We have been operational for over 25 years, with the aim and focus of delivering educational lessons and tools to young children and adults alike in a Living History Environment.
We have been able to make a start at achieving this goal by building our very own Medieval Village as a learning facility, called Duncarron.
What is Duncarron?
Duncarron Medieval Village is the key to unlocking the ability to provide a living history environment where children and adults can come and become immersed in many different time periods from the tales of Scottish History and Culture. We have made it our goal to provide a place in which schools can visit our facility and feel, see and hear what life would be like in ancient times rather than sat staring at a whiteboard in a classroom. We hold multi-period events throughout the year and offer private tours and the facility has been used frequently as a filming location for some of Film and TV's most Popular Series and Films.
Over the past 25 years our volunteer base has grown from 3 founding trustees,to a network of loyal and dedicated supporters up into the thousands all across the globe, all like minded people with a love and passion for the survival of Scottish History, Heritage and Culture.
How have we managed so far?
In order to get to where we are, we have raised over £2.5 million worth of funds through nothing but donations and fundraising from our amazing fan base of volunteers and supporters.
Our involvement in the Film and TV industry as a Specialist Stunt Combat Team, Combat International, has been a key element to the success of Duncarron as our volunteers and our stunt combat team willingly donate a portion of their wages from every production the perform on to further the cause of Duncarron!
Combat International has been a major player in the Scottish Film and TV Industry helping to bring some of your favourite viewing pleasures to life, with realistic and quite barbaric combat sequences to really get you at the edge of your seat!
On top of this we have Saor Patrol, a Scottish Celtic Rock band set up by Charlie who tour the globe featuring at some of the biggest festivals across mainland Europe for the genre, such as MPS (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum) and Waken Open Air. They have raised a huge amount for the Trust as well as the overwhelming support received from the fans of the band who travel far and wide to support them wherever they go!
Why do we need help now?
A fair questions and one with a simple answer, over the 25 years running the charity we have never received any financial support from the Scottish or UK Government, and now during the COVID-19 Pandemic we are struggling more than ever, all of the film and tv work has ground to a halt, our event plan that was lined up to cater 8 full scale events across a 30 day period with one major weekend event each month across the year have all been cancelled and any form of recurring income has sadly ground to a halt. This means that we have lost out on vital income, some thousands per main event and a much larger overall loss from tickets and general admissions across the entire year. These funds would have been fundemental in ensuring we are able to remain functioning for the benefit of schools who have allocated visiting times during the week, who are now also unable to visit and have had to cancel their trips until further notice. We can only hope that we are rebooked when we return to some form of normality!
How will we use the funds raised?
Our main focus is to use the funds to continue with our investment into securing a permanent power source at the village. With power comes great event entertainment right!? We plan on installing a power source fit to run the village without the use of generators which are very noisy and ruin the immersive feeling when you come to visit the fort.
On top of this we wish to use this benefit to install interactive displays and learning tools to allow for us to broaden our ability to teach and educate those who visit and it will allow us to provide a more wholesome and rewarding experience as well as install more facilities and security protection to further bolster our current measures to ensure we safeguard the site and it's mantra!
Messages from our friends on the silver screen!
Sam Heughan - Outlander's Jamie Fraser
"The wonderful @duncarronfort need help, if you can. X
Awesome group keeping history alive.."
https://twitter.com/SamHeughan/status/1255277391775137793?s=20
Tony Curran - Outlaw King's Angus MacDonald
"Can’t speak highly enough of our friends @chick_allan @clanranaldtrust & @duncarronfort.
Invaluable historic lessons for children & adults on Scotland’s history. We’re living in challenging times obviously but any help would be greatly appreciated."
https://twitter.com/TonyCurran69/status/1255562361554874369?s=20
Russell Crowe - Robin Hood/Gladiator
Kevin McKidd - Maid of Honour
Good pals , great education of Scottish history - let's keep em going ! Kev xx https://twitter.com/TheRealKMcKidd/status/1255902278692646912?s=19