Family day trip ideas: Doune Castle

It's not often that you turn up at a property owned by Historic Scotland to find a group of people singing "His name is Brian". However, Monty Python aficionados will need no more guesses to work out where we went last weekend.

Lord knows what residents of the sleepy little town of Doune thought when the comedy combo spent several days filming at the castle in the Seventies. Then the property was in private hands, which no doubt made it easier to get permission to take over this 14th-century pile.

Not that the current caretakers are too precious about what goes on - I'm sure the Pythons would have been thrilled to hear that on one Friday 13th this year a Goth wedding took place, with the bride arriving to the dulcet tones of Alice Cooper.

My daughter Ellen and I were accompanied on our trip by my old friend Amanda, who lives nearby but had never been to the castle.

Armed with walkie talkie-style commentary gizmos we started at the portcullis, listening to details of where spaces had appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (no, I don't know why they were singing about Brian either). The dialogue is littered with references to Python plots and props such as coconut shells - which you can also buy in the souvenir shop.

Inside is a revelation - we reckoned it wouldn't take too long to whiz around, but it's a veritable labyrinth of corridors and spiral staircases. There are a couple of huge rooms - the Great Hall is stunning with a fire grate in the middle, which we all decided was actually quite sensible unless you were planning on dancing a reel.

Ellen was particularly intrigued by the toilet arrangements and noted that if you were in the courtyard below at the wrong time it could be very unfortunate. At the top of some particularly narrow, precarious spiral stairs there's a rooftop walkway with the most amazing views of Doune and beyond.

As we left, the Python fan club was increasing in numbers and we realised this was an organised pilgrimage and the singers aren't there every day. While the unusual performance had gone over Ellen's head, it certainly amused Amanda and me, so perhaps that's a job vacancy that will be coming up at Historic Scotland soon.

Open all year round, check times. Adult 4.20, child 2.50, concession 3.40, www.historic-scotland gov.uk for more details.

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on October 09, 2010