Turret Attractions

I'd booked a $106 room in an outbuilding but was upgraded for free to the $388 Tindale Room by the grand staircase, past the latrines. Above its four-poster canopied bed hung a unicorn-and-lion tapestry. Carpets, curtains and bathrobes were plush. Pampering was mandatory: Parisian soaps, ginger cookies, tea. TV and Internet? Of course.

Near fresh flowers, a welcome letter provided the names of staffers, the weather forecast, radio stations, road closings and delays -- even where police speed cameras operated.

After breakfast -- Northumbrian fried bread, black pudding and smoked haddock -- we toured the battlements. The rooftop chapel has fallen into disrepair, pink paint curls from walls, and pigeons roost in crannies. General manager Anton Phillips says renovation on the chapel will start this week.

With only nine castle bedrooms (plus 10 others in two outbuildings), Langley is small but has won the Les Routiers designation given to top hotels. When we visited, couples were celebrating anniversaries, living their castle fantasies. As was I.

Rates at Langley Castle start at $106 per person per night double, including breakfast and tax. Details: 011-44-1434-688-888,http://www.langleycastle.com. Hexham, about eight miles away, has many dining choices, but eat at the castle's Anglo-French Josephine Restaurant at least once. Our candlelight four-course prix-fixe dinner ($58 each) of duckling, rack of lamb and triple chocolate truffle cake was delectable; lunch is $33 per person.

Carbisdale Castle, Scotland

Surrounded by thick forest in Scotland's rugged highlands, Carbisdale Castle has the grand towers, pitched roofs and stone walls to which we'd become accustomed during our castle-hopping tour.

But unlike our other stops, Carbisdale is a backpacker's paradise with a royal pedigree, a 189-bed hostel a half-mile from the train station. Manager Collette Stewart says 24,000 guests check in annually, from schoolkids to international visitors.

The castle, in Culrain, Sutherland, was built between 1906 and 1917 for the thrice-married Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, but she died before it was finished. In 1933, Col. Theodore Salvesen, a wealthy businessman with Norwegian roots, bought it. He provided refuge to King Haakon VII of Norway during the Nazi occupation of that country in World War II.

In 1945, Salvesen's son Harold bequeathed the castle and its contents to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association. Now, functional tartan carpeting hides boot marks. Walls, painted crimson and spinach-green to obscure fingerprints, have been moved -- the result being that fireplaces end up in hallways or behind bunk beds.

Signs of former grandeur remain, such as bells used to summon servants. A curving stairway leads past stained-glass windows to a game room. In a library crammed with children's books, novels and scholarly works, an intricate ceiling is adorned with spikes that could impale dozing occupants.

Enter the red-walled gallery with Italian marble statues of Venus, Aphrodite and other goddesses and you're transported to a Mediterranean villa. With Velazquez and Rubens copies among the 76 paintings in its collection, Carbisdale could be your best museum experience ever -- no guards to say "don't touch."

Our spartan dorm room -- wall hooks, chair, bunks -- cost $52 for two, but the view of the River Kyle was priceless. Bathrooms and kitchens are shared, but Carbisdale has a dining hall -- a lifesaver in this isolated location if you haven't brought groceries.

This far north in June, the sky never turned black. At 3:30 a.m., day dawned; by 7 a.m., I was eating with a German family flipping omelets and Japanese girls warming apple pie.

Midday, footsteps and voices echoed in high-ceilinged corridors. Since Carbisdale is supposed to be another hotbed of ghosts, I went hunting for a spectral bagpiper, a "lady in white," an angry soldier and children. Guests request beds in the nursery, the most haunted room, where children have been heard crying and beds have been turned around. Alas, the ghosts were quiet that day.

About 1 1/2 miles downhill from Carbisdale, a hike through walls of rhododendron and over a footbridge suspended above the river, is the Invershin House pub, owned by former New Yorkers Molly and David Grant. We gladly braved mammoth bugs for home-style salmon noodle casserole, complemented by strong ale. Walking back by moonlight, we looked for the pipistrelle bats, owls and badgers that everyone reportedly sees. We saw sleeping cows.

Back at the castle, Gene was asleep within minutes. From the bottom bunk, I savored a night that never got dark.

Rates at Carbisdale Castle are $26 per person. The castle is open March 3-Oct. 28. Info: 011-44-1549- 421232,http://www.carbisdale.org; or Scottish Youth Hostels Association, 011-44-8701- 553255,http://www.syha.org.uk. Breakfast is $4, dinner (vegetable soup, corn casserole, dessert) is $11. At Invershin House (011-44-1549-421202), main dishes start at $9 and range from haggis and neeps to balsamic chicken.

Sue Kovach Shuman last wrote for Travel on a California earthquake exhibit.