Man hides castle with 40 feet of hay bales

You can use all the fancy holograms, lasers and mirrors you like, but this story proves you can’t beat a few bales of hay when it comes to hiding your castle.

Robert Fidler decided that it might be nice to have his own castle. Realising that planning permission for his castle might be a little excessive, Mr. Fidler did his homework and discovered that if a structure is left standing for four years with no complaints then, legally, it’s not, well, illegal anymore.

Fidler and his wife set about building a castle on the grounds of his farm. The castle was erected on two grain silos at a cost of £50,000. Robert and his wife then concealed the castle using 40 feet of hay stacks topped with a sheet of blue tarpaulin. That tarpaulin stuff is so handy, isn’t it ?

Anyway, what surprised us most was that the two were actually living in the castle with their young son. They moved in when he was a year old, so he grew up with a nice hay-sie view from his window.

However, there’s a wee flaw in Robert and Linda’s plan. Naturally, people in the surrounding area are up in arms about the whole thing. Saying it’s unsightly and that it’s not fair, planning permission laws should apply to everyone. While Robert and Linda did have the structure up, without complaint for the specified amount of time, neighbours, council members and the like are saying that they weren’t given a chance to complain about it.

We say planning laws should apply to everyone, but then that could easily be because we’re jealous. Because we most definitely are.

Click here for pictures of the castle.