Aldourie Castle

Aldourie Castle stands on a level terrace above the northern end of Loch Ness, a Scottish baronial house first recorded as a laird's house in the 1620s and extended in the 1860s with the turrets, oriels and balustraded tower it wears today. Sir Robert Lorimer added a wing in the early 1900s. WildLand, the Highland estates company of Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen, closed it for a five-year restoration and reopened it as a castle let whole, never room by room.

Inside, the interiors by Charlotte Freemantle and Will Fisher of Jamb keep the bones of a country house and add a quiet Danish restraint. The Great Hall, Drawing Room, Laird's Room, Billiards Room and Conservatory run across the ground floor, and the Dining Room seats 24 for formal dinners. Twelve bedrooms upstairs sleep 24, and seven estate cottages can be added for a larger party.

For anything bigger than a house-party dinner, the restored Steadings across the courtyard carry the evening: a stone-walled Dining Hall that seats 40, a Dance Hall for up to 40, a whisky tasting room and a hayloft. Down at the water, the hull-shaped Boathouse and its terrace look straight along the loch. Larger weddings go into a marquee on the 500-acre estate, and the castle's own chefs cook with produce from the walled garden.