Sleep in Mary, Queen of Scots bed for 7,500 pounds a night!

You can now sleep in a bed in which Mary, Queen of Scots once slept, but the price for doing so is a steep 7,500 pounds a night.

Edinburgh, July 19 : You can now sleep in a bed in which Mary, Queen of Scots once slept, but the price for doing so is a steep 7,500 pounds a night.

According to The Scotsman,Lennoxlove House, set in 460 acres in East Lothian, has been the home of some of Scotland's most powerful families, and from this weekend it will be available to hire.

Guests in its 11 bedrooms will sleep on the finest Egyptian cotton, dine in baronial splendour and have their every wish tended to by a personal butler.

The house, which contains treasures from the Hamilton collection - including Mary's death mask - will still be open to the public on three afternoons a week.

Three generations of the Douglas-Hamilton family, who lived at Lennoxlove from 1946 until the late 1980s, yesterday gathered to reopen their former home for its new use.

The Dowager Duchess, Elizabeth, cut the silk ribbon at the foot of the staircase to mark the change from great country house to weekend playground.

A three million pound refit, supported by a 500,000 pound Historic Scotland grant, has removed the dry rot, added central heating and created 11 suites, including the Lady's Bower, where guests can sleep in the 500-year-old bed said to have been used by Mary, Queen of Scots.

The current Duke, who created the Lennoxlove Limited Trust to support the restoration, said he believed it was the best way to preserve the house.

But his wife Kay, an animal-rights activist, admitted she was unhappy about the use of real leather panelling in the downstairs drawing-room.

Castles and hunting lodges where guests can experience the country-house lifestyle, are an important part of a business tourism market, which is now worth 911 million pounds a year.

ANI