Pictured here is Culcreuch Castle, near Fintry. (As usual, click to enlarge the photo.) As castles go, this is modest but it has been made into a fine hotel with a very good kitchen and bar, and it is the setting for about 200 weddings a year. The part of the building on the left is the original part. The first two or three floors were complete by 1400. The rest was added in more modern times. The date over the front door is 1721. We stayed in the bridal suite, on the top floor. It isn't often you wake up to look out over the battlements of a castle!
I went out of my way to find this for a personal reason (and, truly, this is off the beaten path). Back when my family was a Scottish clan with a chief, he lived here. His forebears lived elsewhere around Loch Lomond but this seems to be the only structure associated with the clan that is not a ruin. Alas, the chief was denounced as an outlaw in the early 1600's and fled to Ireland, losing his estates. His son was the last chief of the clan and since then we have been chiefless. No, I am not volunteering to become the next chief!
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