Bob Dylan puts Highland mansion retreat up for sale
- Published
US singer songwriter Bob Dylan is selling his Scottish Highland retreat.
The 82-year-old behind hits such as Blowin' in the Wind and Like a Rolling Stone has owned Aultmore House and estate for 17 years.
The property in Nethy Bridge in the Cairngorm National Park has gone on the market for offers over £3m.
The 16-bedroom A-Listed stately home was purchased by Dylan and his brother David Zimmerman for £2.2m. They have not visited since the pandemic.
The main house has several reception rooms, including a music room, 11 bathrooms and a further seven attic bedrooms.
In the grounds there are cottages, a large greenhouse, walled garden, follies, fountain and croquet lawn.
Tom Stewart-Moore, from estate agents Knight Frank, said the Nobel laureate was selling up as he had not been able to use the property in recent years.
Aultmore House has uninterrupted views of the Cairngorm mountains
"Up until about pre-Covid times, Bob and his brother would normally go there for a few weeks a year," Mr Stewart-Moore said.
"They bought it because it's stunningly beautiful and, most importantly, very, very private."
The Edwardian mansion set in 25 acres, was built between 1911 and 1914 as a holiday home for Archibald Merrilees, a son of the Scottish merchant who co-founded Russia's first department store in the mid-19th century.
The house was sold in 1922 when the family's fortunes declined in the Russian revolution.
It then saw periods of use as a hunting lodge, World War Two convalescent hospital and a finishing school owned by a New Zealand-born spy who survived imprisonment in Colditz.
It was sold to the musician via his brother, who was acting as his agent, in 2006.
The estate agent said the house appealed to Bob Dylan because it was 'stunningly beautiful' and 'very, very private'
The house has been used as a WWII convalescent hospital and a finishing school
Prior to that it was a luxury B&B and wedding venue, and even featured in the TV drama Monarch of the Glen.
Despite its famous owner, Aultmore House has remained available for holidays and events, and has three cottages which are rented out for about £900 per week.
It is tucked away at the end of a tree-lined driveway 13 miles from Aviemore, amongst the forests to the north-east of Nethy Bridge with uninterrupted views of the Cairngorm mountains.
The Scottish countryside and culture featured in Dylan's work and he has long acknowledged his debt to Scottish folk music.
"My heart's in the Highlands wherever I roam / That's where I'll be when I get called home," he sang on the song Highlands from his Grammy award-winning 1997 album Time Out of Mind.
In 2004, Dylan was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the University of St Andrews.
He chose Robert Burns' 'A Red, Red Rose', written in 1794, as one of his all-time favourites and has said Scottish folklorist Hamish Henderson's song The 51st (Highland) Division's Farewell to Sicily influenced his song the Times They Are A Changin'.