Most roofing projects start with a building. Ancient Lore Village started with a book.
A Book Before a Building
In 2018, Tom Boyd spent much of the year traveling the small towns of rural Tennessee. What he saw there stayed with him: good people in communities that had stopped talking to one another. He believed that if people actually sat down together, they would find far more in common than they expected.
He wanted to build a place that could prove it. First, he wrote a book.
Bokee’s Trek: Outcasts to the Inner Earth follows a curious young boy named Bokee through a world of mythical villages, each home to a different kind of creature: orcs, elves, dwarves, fairies, leprechauns and gremlins. The villages have long been told to distrust one another. Bokee visits them anyway.
In the end, the villages come together and build a place where everyone belongs. They call it Ancient Lore Village.
Then Tom Boyd decided to build it for real.
Project at a Glance
| Detail | Ancient Lore Village |
| Owner | Boyd Hollow Resorts |
| Location | Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Property | 40-acre boutique resort and event venue |
| Opened | 2021 |
| Architect | DK Levy Architects |
| Interior Design | Zarah Bates, Z Creative |
| Elven Grove Construction | Horner Building Co. and Hearthstone Timber |
| Elven Grove Engineering | Facility Systems MEP Engineering; F&E Structural Engineering |
| Products | Premium Somerset; Performance Palm in Weathered |
| Applications | Village Gardens (Somerset); Elven Treehouse Lodges, completed 2025 (Performance Palm) |
| Endureed Installer | Horner Building Co. & Hearthstone Timber |
From Page to Plan
In late 2019, Boyd handed his book to Knoxville architect Daniel Levy of DK Levy Architects. Over the next 18 months, they turned its villages into buildings: fairy cottages, waterfall villas, gremlin dens, orc homes and hidden hollows. Each one was given its own character, material palette and place in the story.
“He gave the book to the architect and the interior designer and said: I want you to make this. How can we bring this to life?”
Micah Spicer, VP Brand and Business Development, Ancient Lore Village
Today the village sits on 40 wooded acres outside Knoxville. Guests stay in character-themed dwellings like the Leprechaun Lair, the Fairy Cottage, the Orc House, the Gremlin Dens and Bokee’s Bungalow. They gather around fire pits and walk trails beside a 40-foot waterfall that falls in three drops to a pond below.
There are no televisions in the rooms, by design. Boyd Hollow Resorts calls its philosophy Hospitality with Purpose: a stay should create genuine human connection, inspire wonder and leave people better than it found them.
The village now hosts weddings for up to 300 guests at Unity Pavilion, along with corporate retreats, fantasy balls, themed dinners and LARP weekends. Its calendar grows every season.
The Challenge: Authenticity That Has to Be Bulletproof
At Ancient Lore Village, visual authenticity is not a finish. It is the product. Every roofline had to read as genuinely ancient, as if the forest had grown up around it rather than the other way around.
Natural thatch looks the part, but it could not meet the brief. The village runs events year-round, with open fire pits, nighttime gatherings and hundreds of guests. Natural thatch degrades, demands constant maintenance and cannot reliably meet the fire safety standards a commercial property requires.
The team needed a roof guests would mistake for the real thing. It had to survive the Tennessee seasons and a full events calendar, and it had to keep the property team off the roof. They specified Endureed.
Two Products. Two Scales. One World.
The project uses two Endureed products, each matched to a different chapter of the story.
Premium Somerset in The Village Gardens
The Village Gardens structures are roofed in Premium Somerset. Inspired by historic European countryside thatch, Somerset is defined by a composed, ordered profile and natural tonal variation. It is the thatch of old English villages and storybook illustrations.
On the curved rooflines of the Village Gardens, Somerset gives each building age and permanence. The structures read as if they have stood in that countryside for centuries.
Performance Weathered Palm: The Elven Treehouse Lodges
Completed in 2025, the Elven Grove lodges sit 12 feet above the forest floor on sculpted concrete columns shaped like tree trunks. Each is a circular timber frame dwelling, from the 328-square-foot Elven Treehouse to the 900-square-foot Luxury Elven Treehouse.
A round roof leaves nowhere to hide. It is seen from every angle, including from the wraparound decks of neighboring lodges. Performance Palm in Weathered answers with a looser, organic profile, aged tones and expressive strand texture, so each lodge looks grown rather than built.
Together, the two products do more than one uniform material could. The Village Gardens feel like a medieval settlement. The Elven Grove feels older, wilder and more mysterious. Same standard. Different story.
How It Has Performed
Ancient Lore Village came back to Endureed for the Elven Grove after Somerset had already proven itself on the Village Gardens, where it has now performed for [X] years with no maintenance. That repeat order says more than any specification sheet.
“We came back because the product you guys have is really great. It’s durable. It lasts a long time. Obviously it’s faux thatch, so it’s not going to catch on fire in our many fire pits around the village. It’s done well and it looks really great. A lot of people think it’s real thatch. It just looks really good and fits our theme perfectly.”
Micah Spicer, VP Brand and Business Development, Ancient Lore Village
That last detail matters more than it might sound. When guests who traveled for an immersive fantasy experience cannot tell the difference, the roof has done its job completely. At Ancient Lore Village, authenticity is the product, and Endureed gave them a roof that earns it.
The performance credentials back that up. Both products are Class A fire rated, wind rated in excess of 200 mph, made in the USA and backed by up to a 30-year no-maintenance warranty. For a property running events year-round in all conditions, zero maintenance is an operational advantage as much as a product feature.
What Comes Next
Boyd Hollow Resorts is now raising capital for two new concepts. The Bokee’s Trek Experience is a fully immersive walk-through attraction that takes guests through each mythical village from the book. The second is a five-star wellbeing retreat and spa built around longevity and intentional living.
Ancient Lore Village began as one man’s response to a divided world. Since opening in [year], it has grown into a brand. Endureed is proud to be part of what it builds next.
About Ancient Lore Village
Ancient Lore Village is an award-winning boutique resort on 40 acres in Knoxville, Tennessee, built around a philosophy of Hospitality with Purpose. Designed by DK Levy Architects, the property features character-themed dwellings, elevated Elven treehouse lodges, the Unity Pavilion event space and a growing calendar of community programming. Visit ancientlorevillage.com to learn more.
About Endureed
Endureed created the engineered thatch category. Its high-performance products authentically replicate natural reeds and grasses from around the world. Made in the USA and trusted for over 25 years on more than 5,000 installations across six continents, Endureed products are Class A fire rated, wind rated in excess of 200 mph and backed by up to a 30-year no-maintenance warranty.
From Necker Island to Nashville Zoo, from Royal Caribbean ships to boutique fantasy resorts, Endureed builds the roofs that define destinations.
