Unusual venues

Fenton Tower, East Lothian

There’s more than a passing resemblance to a posh ski chalet inside this ancient defence tower, which also has some very unusual bathrooms.

You get the best of both worlds at Fenton Tower – the romance of staying in a castle without any of the draughty old rooms. The interior of this 16th-century defence tower, which rises starkly from the surrounding lowland on a hillock of wind-whipped land, has been totally overhauled. From ruins, it has undergone an impressive metamorphosis at the hands of a team of architects, engineers and designers.

While the interior maintains the essence of the castle, with spiral staircases, fortified doors and lots of flagstones, it also has all the necessary conveniences of modern life. Think underfloor heating, WiFi internet access, a communications room with computer, and water pressure that would have left the original owners marvelling.

The result is a harmonious mix of the old and the new. In the double-height Great Hall, for instance, you’ll find a beamed ceiling, tapestries and oil paintings on the walls alongside fabric shutters and squishy sofas. Everything goes together - instead of a mix of antiques amassed by different generations of the same family, all of the pieces in Fenton Tower have been carefully sourced and selected to complement each other.

Details are carefully thought through, be they the special bathroom unguents from Greece, or the game book recording recent shoots. Most of these extras are down to Kiwi manager Wayne Moran, who doubles up as a concierge and can arrange everything from restaurant bookings to golf reservations (there are 100 courses within 30 miles of the castle). Forgotten your clubs? Grab the ones in the hall for guests’ use and practise your swing just outside the front door, aiming for the island in the lake.

Care is taken over the food, too, with meals such as scallops in pancetta, fillet of Scottish beef in Burgundy sauce and dark chocolate and rum truffle torte served on crockery bearing hand-painted pictures of the tower. Eat in the vaulted dining room (which comes with its resident suit of armour) seated around the large walnut refectory table on tartan-upholstered chairs. After dinner, head to the library with its flatscreen TV and open bar for a nightcap of whisky before tackling the spiral stairs for bed.

The bedrooms have all the style of luxury ski chalets, with contemporary fabrics and wooden ceilings, and even a four-poster in one and a half-tester in another. You get all the goodies here too – Fenton Tower bathrobes, a choice of sheets and blankets or duvets, and TVs, DVDs and cordless phones in every room.

In all this luxury, the bathrooms don’t disappoint. Two of the larger rooms have been fitted out with huge claw-foot baths in which to wallow (one has an original shower unit at one end) while a third holds an enormous copper tub, the perfect size for two.

All the upstairs rooms come with views over the surrounding lowland, although the best panorama can be seen from the very top of the tower. From the double attic bedroom with its garret sitting room, a door leads on to the rooftop with its stunning view of the windswept countryside. It's an area that’s definitely worth exploring, with miles of white-sand beaches, two nature reserves close by and Edinburgh just 20 miles up the road. But the best thing about a day of outdoor activities or culture is that you can return to Fenton Tower to play king of this very luxurious castle.