Madonna arrives in Scotland to strains of lone piper

Wearing a three-quarter red-and-orange tartan jacket over black trousers to ward off the brisk Scottish weather, Madonna, 42, descended the steps of the aircraft in bright midday sunshine in the company of husband-to-be Guy Ritchie and her two children.

Scotland the Brave was played on the bagpipes as the party arrived. They left for Skibo castle near Dornoch in a Range Rover with darkened windows. Two other vehicles were on hand to carry members of the entourage.

Final wedding arrangements have yet to be confirmed, but reports increasingly indicate the couple will wed at the secluded castle, rather than in Dornoch Cathedral, for reasons of security and privacy. Legal requirements may, however, entail that they have to emerge at some point to sign the marriage registry in the town.

Madonna's last wedding - to actor Sean Penn in 1985 in a clifftop ceremony in Malibu - was turned into a media circus with helicopters overhead drowning the wedding vows. The marriage lasted three years.

Rocco, the couple's four-month-old son, is to be christened in the 776-year-old cathedral on Thursday, reports say. Lourdes, 4, Madonna's daughter by a relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon, is to be bridesmaid at the wedding ceremony.

Strict security surrounds the couple and the wedding venue. Among the stars attending are actors Rupert Everett, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow, who would be matron of honour, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Stella McCartney, who is understood to have designed the wedding dress, will also attend on the bride's side. Ritchie, 32, a British film director, will have footballer-turned- actor Vinnie Jones, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, who introduced the couple at a dinner party at her north London home in 1998, among the guests he has invited.

He is marry in Hunting MacIntosh tartan, the Scottish clan to which his family belongs. The wedding service is to be conducted by the Reverend Susan Brown, who has said she will present the couple with a twin-pack of toilet rolls - "long and strong" in the advertisement - just as she hopes their marriage will be. The minister is called Holy Spice by children in the community for her unorthodox approach.

Skibo castle is a huge neo-Gothic edifice built by the Scottish- born U.S. steel magnate Andrew Carnegie at the height of Edwardian opulence. It is now used as an exclusive venue by the very rich for private celebrations away from the public gaze.

The couple were shown in weekend press photographs taking lessons in pheasant shooting, and are expected to use the location to pursue the activity along with their guests and entourage.

Madonna has indicated in recent interviews that she intends to settle in Britain rather than the U.S. to bring up her children and is reported to be looking for a home in London, where she already owns a house.

(klei/dpa)