Madonna Arrives in Scotland

Monday, December 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

INVERNESS, Scotland (AP) â€” Serenaded by a lone bagpiper, Madonna and British film director Guy Ritchie arrived by private jet in the north Scotland city of Inverness on Monday to begin preparations for their wedding.

The couple, who are expected to marry Friday in Dornoch, a coastal town in the Scottish Highlands, made no comment as they climbed into a waiting Range Rover, accompanied by their 4-month-old son Rocco and Lourdes, Madonna's 3-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Their arrival was shown live on Britain's Sky TV.

But for the handful of fans who joined some 100 journalists at the Inverness airport to watch the celebrities arrive, the thrill of seeing a star of Madonna's stature in the quiet Scottish city of old stone buildings was worth the wait.

``I don't understand why there were not more people down here,'' said Weeheong Barras, a 27-year-old optician. ``I lived in London before and I never really saw anyone, so it is quite ironic to be in Inverness and see a celebrity.''

The wedding ceremony is expected to be a celebrity-packed affair at Dornoch's Skibo Castle, a luxurious estate about 4 miles outside the town center. The British news reported that the couple rented the castle for a month to ensure a maximum amount of privacy.

Madonna and Ritchie seem determined to make sure their nuptials are vastly different from the pop star's first marriage to actor Sean Penn. When Madonna and Penn exchanged vows in an outdoor ceremony in California in 1985, helicopters whirred overhead, and they were barely able to hear each other.

Madonna and Penn divorced four years later.

Anne Cowley, 51, who joined the reporters to welcome Madonna, said she could understand why the star chose the Scottish Highlands to begin her second marriage.

``Life goes on as normal no matter what has happened,'' Cowley said. ``This is why she has chosen here. ... They don't get awe-inspired with it all, it is just 'let people get on with their lives.'''

Ritchie's best-known work is the film ``Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.'' This would be his first marriage.

Madonna, 42, and Ritchie, 32, live in west London's fashionable Notting Hill neighborhood.