It Began With a Dream
Plantagenet Discoveries began with a dream
In 2022, I knew what I hoped it might become. What I couldn't possibly know was what would happen when I finally took that leap and followed that dream.
Four years later, I finally have that story to tell.
My very first castle, Eilean Donan in Scotland. I had no idea then where my love of places like this would eventually lead me.
It began with a dream.
I have always been a dreamer.
For years, one of those dreams kept bringing me back to the same place, history. I could happily lose hours reading about the people of the medieval world, following their lives through castles, abbeys and battlefields on the page. Then in 2017, I finally had the opportunity to visit some of those places for myself. For the first time, I understood how different a story could feel when I was actually standing where it happened. The names I'd encountered so often on the page suddenly felt like real people. They had walked through these rooms, looked from these windows, argued, celebrated, grieved and made decisions within these walls. Places I had imagined for years were suddenly there in front of me.
When I came home, I wanted more. I started searching for a tour that would take me deeper into the Plantagenet story, following the people and places I had spent so many years reading about. But I couldn't find the kind of journey I was looking for.
And somewhere along the way, another idea began to take shape. What if I could create the kind of tour I had been looking for?
The more I thought about it, the more possibilities I could see. I began imagining journeys built around the stories themselves, following people through the landscapes they knew and visiting the places where their lives unfolded. I was positive there would be other history lovers out there looking for exactly the same thing.
For a long time, that idea remained exactly that, an idea. Something I thought about, played with and wondered whether I might actually be brave enough to do. Then, over coffee one morning, a dear friend asked me a very simple question.
“Max, what's stopping you?”
As it turned out, I didn’t have a very good answer. So, in 2022, I took the leap.
Plantagenet Discoveries had begun.
What I Thought I was Creating
When I first began Plantagenet Discoveries, I thought I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to create. I wanted to take people who shared my fascination with medieval history to the places where these stories had actually unfolded, and give them the opportunity to experience some of what I had felt when history moved from the pages of a book into the world around me.
The Plantagenet story had fascinated me for years. More than three centuries of family, ambition, loyalty, conflict and extraordinary personalities had left their mark across England and France. There were the familiar names, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, King John, Edward I and the Black Prince, but there were also so many people whose stories were less familiar and just as compelling. I could see almost endless possibilities for journeys built around them.
I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to rush people from one historical site to another simply so I could fit more into an itinerary. I wanted there to be time for the stories, time to look around, ask questions and talk about what we were seeing, but also time simply to enjoy being there.
At that stage, in my mind I believed history would be at the heart of everything I was creating, and in many ways I was right. However, with all the planning, research and imagining that went into Plantagenet Discoveries, there was one part I could never have prepared for. That was the day when my guests walked into the dream.
I can still remember how strange and wonderful that felt. These were real people who had chosen to trust this idea of mine enough to travel halfway around the world and experience it with me. Suddenly the historical tours I had spent so long creating weren't simply places and stories on a page. We were walking through those castle gates together, talking about the people who had lived there, standing in the landscapes where their stories had unfolded and sharing those moments I had imagined for so long.
But something else began happening too, something I hadn't really thought about when I first dreamed of creating historical tours. My guests brought their own stories with them. They arrived with historical figures they had loved for years, family connections they had discovered, places they had long wanted to see and questions that sometimes sent all of us down the proverbial rabbit hole. I began seeing familiar stories differently because I was now experiencing them through other people's eyes as well as my own.
And then there were all the things that had very little to do with the itinerary. The conversations over dinner, the laughter on the coach, the running jokes that somehow lasted for the entire tour and those completely unplanned moments that became some of our favourite memories. I had spent so much time thinking about the history and the places that I hadn't fully understood how important the people sharing them would become.
Perhaps that has been one of the greatest surprises of all. When I hear guests talking afterwards about a particular place that moved them, a friendship that began on tour or some ridiculous little moment that still makes them laugh, I have this extraordinary sense that they haven't simply travelled on a Plantagenet Discoveries tour. Somehow, they have walked into a dream that once existed only in my imagination, and they have made their own stories a part of it.
And in doing that, they have helped shape the dream too.
The Dream Changed Me Too
Travelling with my guests has changed my own relationship with history in ways that have continued to develop with every tour. History has always been something I could happily lose myself in, but Plantagenet Discoveries has made me more curious than ever about the stories that sit beyond the familiar names and events.
Creating each new journey takes me down paths I might never otherwise have followed. I can begin researching a castle and find myself completely captivated by someone who lived there, or start with a familiar historical event and discover a small detail that changes the way I think about the whole story. Working alongside people with their own areas of knowledge adds another layer again, and I love that there is always another question to ask, another story to uncover and another reason to keep learning.
It has also changed the way I think about the places themselves. I have become much more conscious of giving a place time to tell its story rather than treating it as another stop on an itinerary. Some of my favourite moments now come from having the freedom to linger, to notice the details we might otherwise have missed, or simply to sit with what we have just experienced before moving on.
Perhaps that is one of the things I value most about where this dream has taken me. I began Plantagenet Discoveries because I wanted to create the kind of historical tour I had once gone looking for myself. Four years later, I am still learning what I want those journeys to be.
The Dream Is Still Unfolding
When I think back to that conversation over coffee and the simple question, “Max, what's stopping you?”, I couldn't possibly have imagined where that question would take me. There have been wonderful moments, plenty of lessons along the way and more than a few things I would probably do differently if I were starting again, but that is all part of what Plantagenet Discoveries has become.
The dream was real.
And now I finally have the story of what happened when I followed it.
Although perhaps the loveliest part of all is knowing that the story is still being written.
There are more places I want to explore, more stories I want to share and so much more I still want to learn, and I hope I never lose that feeling of wondering where the next path through history might lead.
Perhaps you have a dream of your own. Maybe there is a castle you've wanted to see for years, a historical figure whose story has stayed with you, or a place you've read about so often that you would simply love to stand there for yourself. If that's what brought you to Plantagenet Discoveries, then perhaps one day you'll walk into this dream too.
If you share my curiosity about the past and enjoy discovering the stories of the people and places that shaped it, I’d love you to stay in touch. Each month I share more of the history I discover, stories from our travels and some of the little moments that happen along the way.
If you’d like to be part of the Plantagenet Discoveries community and see where the story goes next, you can join us here.
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