The great bell above the courtyard at first dinged and then donged such that the man-dressed-like-a-bird jumped up and fluffed his feathers and stared down from his nest in expectation of a new arrival. But in the place at the centre of the courtyard where the visitor should have appeared there was nothing at all.
Explanation:
Sort of a Gormenghast floating in space. In my mind this is very much a 1980s BBC sitcom about a birdman and a castle into which confused strangers sometimes teleport.
Inside the Stormfort nobody leaves, or dies, meaning that the enormous castle is inhabited by a vast range of strange, mad characters.
Links:
The Shrine of Insanity 