A HISTORY enthusiast has produced an assortment of striking digital images envisaging what East Lothian's castles would have looked like hundreds of years ago.

Andrew Spratt, Dirleton Castle's monument manager, did not take the usual route of going to university to pursue art.

Instead, he joined his father working at the 13th-century fortress in 1981, fresh out of school, and soon immersed himself in events that occurred centuries earlier.

The Macmerry resident has been carrying out historical re-enactments at the castle and, in 2017, made his first GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image to bring together his twin passions of history and art.

Since then, he has produced reconstructive drawings of nearly all of the county's castles and key medieval sites simply by using his laptop, among them Tantallon, Dirleton and Dunbar Castles.

The 61-year-old said: "To some people, my pictures may look a bit spooky and there are a lot of people online who have said they are, in fact, AI-generated content, but I actually have made these on my computer at home for fun.

"I create them level by level from historical architectural drawings.

"The process is labour intensive and I use my laptop to digitally recreate what the strongholds would have looked like.

East Lothian Courier: A mock-up aerial view of Dirleton Castle in 1550A mock-up aerial view of Dirleton Castle in 1550

"I just find history so interesting and I have gained a big audience on social media.

"In the future, I am hoping to branch out to recreate other monuments in the Lothian areas."

Andrew has amassed a large audience of followers on X due to his striking GIFs, showing what the structures look like now and what they would have looked like centuries ago.

East Lothian Courier: A reconstruction of how Tantallon Castle would have looked in 1371A reconstruction of how Tantallon Castle would have looked in 1371

The mock-ups that Andrew has made are available to view online and, due to his knowledge of history, are accurate representations of what the castles would have looked like in their pomp.

Andrew, paid tribute to his mentor, the late Nigel Tranter, a well-known Aberlady author who specialised in Scottish castles and who used to give him advice on reconstruction drawings and feedback on his work.

Examples of Andrew's work, can be seen here.