SADDELL CASTLE, Kintyre

They were a cautious lot back in 1508. The builders of Saddell Castle included a trap door in the floor of the main entrance passage: when it was opened, unwelcome visitors would tumble straight into a deep pit prison with no other exit.

It didn’t stop this lochside stronghold from being sacked by English raiders, then seized by the Campbells, but things are more peaceful now: walk the battlements and you see only wooded hills, and seals rippling the still surface of the water just a few steps from your gate. Inside, the rooms are huge, it’s comfortable without being flash, and there’s a fireplace (with supply of logs) to tell stories by in the evening.

Sleeps 8; four nights from £430; Landmark Trust (01628 825925, landmarktrust.org.uk)

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ACKERGILL TOWER, Caithness

Built in the late 1400s by the clan Keith, Ackergill spent the next couple of hundred years staging a lively sequence of sieges and stormings, mostly from the warlike Sinclairs (with a quick intermission for Cromwell). Splendidly restored in traditional style, it’s mostly hired out for exclusive use at a cool £6,640 a day.

Assuming you’re not a state-owned bank on a jolly, you’re better off at the half-dozen house-party weekends held each year, when it’s (just about) affordable — and the rate includes a full gourmet menu, wine, whisky, activities, ceilidhs, pipers and all.

Three-night weekends from £856pp; 01955 603556, ackergill-tower.co.uk

LANGLEY CASTLE, Northumberland

For genuine antiquity, this one’s hard to beat. Built about 1350, it’s hardly been altered since, apart from a pretty severe bashing from Henry IV in the 1400s. The castle is satisfyingly squat and massive, all arrow slits and crenellations — squint hard enough and you’ll see Errol Flynn leaping across the battlements.

The nine hotel rooms are presented in suitably olde-worlde style: our pick is the Greenwich, with its fantastic window seat set deep into the 7ft- thick walls.

Castle doubles from £245, B&B; Greenwich £269, B&B; 01434 688888, www.langleycastle.com

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