Title comes with his new Scottish castle

Alan Carr could become a baron after buying a Scottish stately home.

The comedian has just paid a reported £3.25million for Ayton Castle in the Scottish Borders – with his efforts to turn it into a luxury hotel and spa to be documented in a Disney+ series.

But the property also comes with the title The Barony of Ayton title, which dates from 1324 – a fact the comic is said to be delighted with.

The property’s sales brochure says: ‘This is a feudal barony and was associated with the ownership of land and certain historical rights, rather than a title of nobility conferred by the Crown.’

Ayton Castle also links to Mark Twain – who was so impressed with the property when he visited in 1873 that he bought the intricately carved mantelpiece from the dining room and had it shipped to his home in Hartford, Connecticut. 

It was also the centre of a love triangle that scandalised high society in the 1970s and 1980s.

Owner David Liddell-Grainger began an affair with Lady de la Rue, the young Norwegian wife of his elderly neighbour. He divorced his wife – a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II – and moved his lover into the property, fathering two children with her. He later moving her terminally ill by-then ex-husband, Sir Eric, into the castle too until his death in 1989.

In 2014, the Liddell-Grainger family sold the castle on to property tycoon Rich Syred, who has sold it on to Carr. His claim to the barony was reported by The Sun today. 

Published: 24 Feb 2026