We were engaged on October 26th, 2008 during our vacation in Scotland. The location was magical: within the grounds of Saddell Castle on the Kintyre Peninsula. The edifice was itself celebrating its 500th anniversary during the fall that we stayed there, and we shared a fabulous weekend with twelve wonderful native friends. During the days, we hiked around and explored the grounds of the castle and the nearby Abbey, and at night, we occupied our time playing games, cooking gigantic feasts in the great hall, or quietly splayed in overstuffed chairs taking on various hobbies and crafts. Lara brought her harp, and the winding stairwell often carried haunting, lilting tunes through the entire castle. Marianne painstakingly hand-painted botanical studies in the style of Besler and Redouté. Darren, of course, was fervently flipping through local histories to envision the legacy of the place in which we slept. And we all playtested Sandy’s brilliant, unreleased game of abstract strategy. It was a wonderfully grand time.

After supper one night, Darren placed a bottle of wine down on the table in front of Halsted, which had attached to it a piece of burnt parchment with writing on it. This was the start of a wild treasure hunt throughout the castle, with cleverly-worded verse that led her and many of the other guests on a fervent search to find the next clue. There were six in succession, each piecing together part of a story – the recounting of a tale of love for this building, this country, and this woman – until the last clue was found to much excitement and celebration. This last puzzle piece pointed to the final goal of the hunt: a couplet on folded paper requesting Halsted’s hand in marriage (safely tucked away in the master bedroom’s ancient commode). Darren was there behind her with the ring to formally ask, just after their wide-eyed seekers-in-arms had slipped out the door without a trace to leave them alone with the moment. All of the secrets had been kept secret until this moment, and Darren couldn’t believe that it went off without a hitch. But in this place, how else could it have gone?

It’s not every day that Americans get a chance to experience a place with such deep and resonant history, especially on an anniversary of this magnitude. We really owe a debt of thanks to The Landmark Trust for preserving and caring for these gorgeous buildings and making them fit for the public to enjoy. We also would have never been exposed to this wonderful holiday without the love and friendship of our esteemed friends in the U.K., who will always have our genuine thanks for making this event possible and so absolutely memorable. They were in on the surprise the whole time.