The Best Bedroom

This was the principal or 'best' bedroom of the castle coming as it does at the end of the enfilade of the First Drawing Room and the Anteroom (Picture Room). This arrangement will be found in many country houses, and perhaps one of the most notable Scottish examples is Thirlestane, where a similar layout exists. In the 1870's, when so many alterations were made to the castle, it became LadyAilsa's Boudoir, and remained as such until the propertywas handed over to the Trust in 1945.

It had always been hoped to show this room as it might have appeared originally. It has been fully redecorated according to the original colour scheme and the paper used is a copy of one produced in the 1780's. At the same time 19th-century papier mache enrichments were removed from the ceiling. The room has been furnished with appropriate pieces including a four-post bed, the draperies being based on a design in Hepplewhite's Guide, the encoignure is Louis XV, and the pair of important satinwood commodes are in the manner of Charles Elliot, cabinetmaker to George III. Between the windows hangs the mirror that Adam designed for Culzean in 1782. It has recently been fully restored, as over the years, parts of it had been broken or lost. The pair ofgirandoles are late 18th-century.

The marble chimney piece was originally in what is now the Dining Room (visitors will recall that that room was once divided into the Library and Dressing Room). It displays typical library features in itsSdecoration, with globes at each end of the lintel, and a group of classical figures in the centre.

Above hangs a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted in 1813 by Lefevre. To the left of the south windowthere is a picture of HMS Victory leaving Portsmouth Harbour by Thomas Elliot; and to the right Review of Woolwich Common by Edward Dayes.

The Trust was able to refurbish this room thanks to the generosity of Messrs Whytock and Reid of Edinburgh, who provided all the soft furnishings, and Mr KennethJackson, also of Edinburgh, who provided the wallpaper.