Turret Attractions

Our ground-floor room retained a hospital ambiance: over-the-bed light, white sink, bare floor. A hot pot, tagless tea bags and instant coffee filled a tabletop. Fluffy towels and a lavender comforter provided a hint of luxury in the tiny room.

Down the hall, separate-sex showers required a 50-pence piece to heat the water, but we only had one coin. Gene took the pence and I shivered through a sponge bath in a tub we shared with our neighbors. When I tried to brush my teeth, the sink sprayer doused me.

I blamed faulty plumbing, but I suppose it could have been a ghost. Craig-y-Nos has been featured on British television as Wales's "most haunted" castle and Webcams attempt to capture the invisible. Ghost tours, plus events with mediums and psychics, are conducted by the Paranormal World, a company partly owned by castle staffer Kelly Burnell.

"Lots of unexplained phenomena have happened here at the castle," Burnell wrote in an e-mail. "My own personal experience exists of a chair 20 yards from anyone moving across the floor on its own . . . voices coming from no visible source and scratches appearing on me out of the blue."

Nineteenth-century opera diva Adelina Patti is among those said to have taken up spectral residence. She happily shared the castle with a major love and entertained royalty. She died in 1919 after falling down a staircase and was embalmed on a slab in the cellar.

The castle's breakfast room, with its gorgeous mountain view, was Patti's favorite, but now it's a faded glory with peeling paint (psychics say it has bad energy and is "very active" ghost-wise). The staff is mostly invisible; a sign instructs guests to make toast. The resident feline waited to nuzzle until after the chef had brought my bacon-and-beans breakfast.

While ghost-hunting on creaky red-carpeted floors, we discovered another side to Craig-y-Nos: guest rooms with antique furnishings and claw-foot tubs, a huge contrast to ours -- and for only about $50 more.

Rates at Craig-y-Nos are $39 (dorm) to $169 per room per night, double occupancy, including breakfast and tax. Info: 011-44-1639-730205,http://www.craigynoscastle.com. For ghost tours (from $9):http://www.theparanormal world.com. The castle bar has sandwiches ($4.50 burgers) and salads. On Sundays, $21 buys a three-course "carvery" meal. Meet locals at the Gwyn Arms (cheese toastie and chips, $9) or four other eateries within a 10-minute drive.

Langley Castle, England

I didn't pick Langley Castle for its seven-foot-thick walls or stone toilets, but I'll always remember them.

Located in Langley-on-Tyne, Northumberland, the castle has the best-preserved medieval latrines, or garderobes, in Europe. Historians think it was a garrison because it has 12.

Built in 1350, Langley sits near Hadrian's Wall, built 18 centuries ago to keep out northern barbarians. Around 1405, fire destroyed all but the stone walls. Not until 1895 did historian Cadwallader Bates begin restoration (his grave is 100 yards from the castle entrance), which led to the castle's new life as a girls' school and private dwelling. Then, in 1985, MIT professor Stuart Madnick bought Langley and opened it to guests.

Sitting atop a hill, the castle is reached by a path that winds past gnarled trees. It's boxy, and towers jut from four corners. Inside, armor decorates the foyer and tapestries and paintings of royalty adorn walls -- all those things associated with storybook castles. In jeans, I felt horribly underdressed.