My wife, Cathleen, and I have been to Scotland several times, but our pilgrimage in March was by far our finest and most interesting.

The main reason for our trip was the commemoration address at Glasgow Cathedral to honor the Hutcheson brothers, who founded my old school in Glasgow in 1641.

I talked about my school memories during World War II. My theme was that if you achieve success in life, you should give back to the institutions that helped you succeed. I tied together the lives of the Hutchesons with those of Andrew Carnegie and today Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Scotland's Sir Tom Hunter, all of whom are making a difference in the world with enormous charitable contributions.

Glasgow has a marvelous collection of Victorian buildings, all cleaned since coal fires were banned 50 years ago. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed several distinguished and distinctive buildings, including the Glasgow School of Art.

Glasgow University bought the first picture that James McNeill Whistler sold. Whistler's mother was Scottish; he left the university's Hunterian Art Gallery a collection of major paintings and drawings. They are so breathtakingly beautiful that the Hunterian is always our first stop in Glasgow.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum recently reopened after a makeover after 100 years of operation. It has a great collection of paintings by two groups of Scottish artists: the Glasgow boys (Lavery, Hornal, Barr and Guthrie) and the Scottish colourists (Caudell, Peploe, Fergusson and Hunter). They painted Scottish scenes as well as in France in styles similar to the impressionists. Both groups are now recognized and collectors prize their works highly.

Glasgow, named European City of Culture in 1990, is vibrant and has every type of cultural and sporting activity. Beautiful scenery such as the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond are nearby. During World War II, my father often took me to Greenock to see the hundreds of ships, merchantmen and warships arriving and departing in convoys. We often saw the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, which brought tens of thousands of American troops to Britain.

Our next stop was Drumlanrig, ancestral home of the Duke of Buccleugh. The current duke is the hard-working president of the National Trust for Scotland, and has visited Palm Beach three times to attend our Highland Fling on St. Andrew's Day, Nov. 30, each year. At that time he held the title of Earl of Dalkeith. He became a duke last year when his father died, and can trace his ancestry to William Douglas in 1174. A later Douglas was a chieftain under King Robert the Bruce, who wanted to go to Jerusalem on a crusade but died before he could go. Douglas carried Bruce's heart on a crusade, but after he was wounded in a battle in Spain he hurled the heart at his enemy, crying, "Forward, brave heart." The insignia of the heart with two wings can be found all over Drumlanrig.

Drumlanrig was built about 1670 and sits in a beautiful valley, encircled by low hills. The duke showed us around his castle with pride and intimate knowledge of his superb Old Masters. French and English antiques and portraits of the duke's ancestors are all world class.

A famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna with the Yardwinder, was stolen a few years ago while the castle was open to the public. It was recently recovered undamaged thanks to the local police and Scotland Yard.

Drumlanrig is a worthwhile destination and is open to the public at certain times, although we can't guarantee the duke will be present to show you around and entertain you in his home.

We drove about an hour and a half northeast to the National Trust for Scotland headquarters in beautiful and stately Charlotte Square for lunch. Lorna Stoddart, the executive in charge of development, then drove us four hours to Fyvie Castle near Aberdeen, the headquarters of the North Sea Oil Industry. Fyvie Castle belongs to the National Trust for Scotland and is open to the public. It was built about 1200 but has been added to by various owners since. My maternal grandfather was a coachman there in the 1880s; he was killed in a coaching accident in Glasgow when my mother was 2 years old.

Fyvie is haunted, and has many stories of ghosts and a tragic curse, backed up by witnesses and facts. People have reported footsteps in corridors, lights going on and off, items falling for no reason, and doors opening and closing. The curse from 1400 stated that no firstborn male heir would live to inherit the castle; it has stood the test of time for 500 years.

Alexander Forbes-Leith, who was born near Fyvie, settled in America and made his fortune in iron and steel, as did Andrew Carnegie. He bought Fyvie in 1888 and updated it. The family deeded the castle to the trust in 1984. The Forbes-Leith family live nearby and we had lunch with them in the castle, managed by Robert Lovie, who has made it a popular spot for weddings. More than 40 are booked for 2008.

Haddo House, a beautiful Georgian castle nearby, was designed in 1743 by William Adam. Prior to becoming a trust property, it was owned by the marquis of Aberdeen and his forebears. The marquis and his marchioness were our honored guests in Palm Beach for the 2006 Highland Fling, and hosted a formal dinner party for us at Haddo House.

The dining table was set with candles and all kinds of silver ornaments for 26. The ladies looked beautiful in their bejeweled finery and the men were in kilts. And the marquis' ancestors, going back 400 years, smiled from portraits on the walls. They included a prime minister, a governor general of Canada, a viceroy of Ireland, warriors and statesmen, with their beautiful ladies. Lady Aberdeen, wife of the viceroy of Ireland, performed tremendous public work, especially in health care. You could feel the sense of history fill the room.

I had the most fascinating game of golf with the marquis at Cruden Bay. It is a links course that winds its way through massive sand dunes.

It seems you can't get too far anywhere in the world from Donald Trump; he is trying to get permission to build a world-class golf course in the same line of dunes just to the south of Cruden Bay. Currently the dunes are designated as environmentally sensitive.

Trump is asking for permission for a 450-room hotel, 500 homes, 950 condos and 36 villas. Many support the project for its potential economic benefit, while a smaller group opposes it on environmental grounds. But there is no question the dunes would make a superlative links golf course.

The last stop was Skibo Castle, in the far north of Scotland. Skibo has two claims to fame, as Andrew Carnegie's first house and the site of Madonna's wedding.

Carnegie spent four to six months at Skibo each year from 1898 until 1919 when he died. His daughter Margaret continued to holiday there until 1985 when it was sold and converted to a private club. One time, we stayed in the Andrew Carnegie suite.

The Carnegie Club owns many of Andrew Carnegie's original furnishings, including a 100-year-old concert grand Bechstein piano that was played by Paderewski, Elgar, King Edward VII — and me — all students and great admirers of Carnegie, who left Scotland when he was 13. Although in some respects, he never left Scotland; he spent several months there every year, starting at age 30, usually renting a castle until he bought Skibo.

We admire his efforts to dispose of his entire fortune. He was the richest man in the world in 1900 when he sold out to J.P. Morgan, and donated more than 3,300 libraries and more than 6,000 church organs to promote reading and classical music. It was a privilege for me to sit at his desk and admire the undulating pastoral scenery, with lochs and mountains unchanged and unspoiled in the 100 years since he sat there gazing at the same view.

A fine 18-hole championship golf course has been developed on the 7,500-acre property. I won low-gross and low-net the day I played there — although I was the only person on the course braving the 40-degree day's wind, sunshine, clouds, rain, sunshine, sleet and — finally — more sunshine.

Now back in social and sunny Palm Beach, we have great respect and appreciation for all the owners of these magnificent castles, especially for the work and devotion of the National Trust for Scotland to preserve them.

* Walter Milne Ross is a director of the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA.