Scotland: Celebrating in a castle

By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 12/08/02

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Joe and Carol Bain of Cambridge have traveled all over the world, including Scotland many times when Joe, a financial analyst and stockbroker, was doing business with Scottish Investment Trust. "We'd always pick a weekend and stay in a different part of Scotland," said Joe, whose paternal grandfather was Scottish.

Several times they had toured the grounds of the famed Culzean (pronounced cul-LANE) Castle, 45 miles south of Glasgow on an outcrop on the south Ayrshire coast. They were familiar with the Eisenhower Apartment on the top two floors, given to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied commander, in 1945 to thank him for commanding Scottish soldiers in the battle for Europe. Eisenhower visited the elegant accommodations four times, and later the apartment became available to the public as an exclusive B & B (www.nts.org.uk/culzean.html). A 16th-century fortress transformed in the late 1700s into a grand castle, Culzean is one of many properties managed by the National Trust for Scotland, of which the Bains are lifelong members.

"One of my great dreams was to stay at the Eisenhower Apartment," said Carol, an archivist. Not only did she realize her dream, but the Bains invited their children and grandchildren to share it with them for a joint celebration of their 80th birthdays. The six grateful guests were sons George and Henry Bain, of Syracuse, N.Y., and Waltham, respectively; daughter and son-in-law Margie and Rich Huoppi of Pomfret, Conn., who were celebrating their 27th anniversary; and grandsons Peter Huoppi of Burlington, Vt., and David Huoppi, a student at Trinity College in Hartford.

The apartment has six bedrooms, a sitting room, dining room, and kitchen. A resident housekeeper and cook is on hand. The price for three nights, including meals, was about $3,800, Joe said.

"The hallway goes around a large circular staircase, and the master bedroom has a fireplace with a gas heater, enormous armoires, a large dressing room, and a toilet in a turret," Carol said. They couldn't help but imagine the Eisenhowers looking out the same windows from the room, though "I don't imagine it's the same two beds," Carol said. The view was stunning, they said, and "on a clear day you can see the coast of Ireland." The living room is semicircular with a panoramic view of the coast and grounds, and a working fireplace.

Breakfasts at the castle were sumptuous, they said.

They ate out twice, but on their final night they had a special family dinner that included a bagpiper who "piped us in to the dining room," Joe said.

The evening started with cocktails on the terrace. "We had tears in our eyes," Carol said. "We've been married since 1949. It was emotional."

"The piper played the lowland pipes through dinner, which was nice," Joe said. "They don't have the huge sound that highland pipes have."

One day he and his son-in-law played the world-renowned Ailsa Course at Turnberry, one of the sites of the British Open (www.turnberry

.co.uk/golf/ailsa.html).

"It's a challenging links course, seaside, and it's possible to hit your ball in the ocean. This is where golf got going, and it's taken very seriously, more seriously than in America," Joe said.

The younger folks, meanwhile, climbed around old caves in cliffs under the castle. And daughter Margie spent one afternoon horseback riding on the beach.

"We all took some time to walk the grounds of this place," which are open to the public, Carol said. "They're very extensive, with big trees and ponds, and birds and animals." "

Grandson Peter, a photojournalist, served as trip photographer and made a multimedia CD of the photos — accompanied by bagpipe music, of course.

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