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Another luxurious hotel dedicated to the highest refinements of eating and drinking. Monkfish and scallops with a courgette noodle stew sets the impeccable standard.

Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed here (he commandeered the place in 1746) and the hosts have dined out on the story ever since. Glistening chandeliers and Adams plasterwork enhance a building of exceptional architecture. Every room uniquely decorated, and superb dining.

Once a thriving village with mines, iron workings and trade links with the Low Countries, Culross fell into decline in the 18th and 19th centuries and became a forgotten backwater. Its restoration began in the 1930s, and now the town is a striking resurrection of its 16th- and 17th-century heyday. Even the plants in the palace garden are in keeping with the 1600s!

This cliff-edge castle was remodelled into a magnificent home for the Earls of Cassillis in 1777 by Georgian architectural master Robert Adam (see Culzean Castle) .

Robert Adam’s masterful design and exquisite taste reached their apotheosis in this castle, which ranks as one of Britain’s finest mansions. Set in a park that does it ample justice, it commands a dramatic coastal position, looking seaward from the top of an Ayrshire cliff (see Culzean Castle) .

A little splash of Regency gentility and fashion in a land prized for its wildness. Indeed, the castle stands proud on a windswept clifftop, but Culzean is a velvet hand in an iron glove, and inside all is given over to Robert Adam’s dexterous play with the rules of Classicism (see Culzean Castle) .

This sport – rather like bowls on ice – is the one in which the Scots usually excel at the Winter Olympics. Heavy circular granite stones are used, with a flat base and a handle on top. The curler slides the stone down the rink towards a bull’s-eye and team mates, armed with brushes, polish the path ahead of the stone if more momentum is needed.