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Why has Alan Carr bought a castle and where is it?

Megan BonarBBC Scotland News
News imageBBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells Alan Carr, a man with unkempt hair and thick-rimmed glasses. He is standing with one hand on his hip and the other leaning on a wall in front of lots of greenery. He is smiling which shows off a gap in his teeth. He is wearing a cream suit jacket with gold beading on it.BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells
Alan Carr spent the summer at a Scottish Castle filming Celebrity Traitors

Just months after being crowned king of The Celebrity Traitors castle, Alan Carr has set his sights on a real one.

The comedian has bought 19th Century Ayton Castle in the Scottish Borders, which has 17 bedrooms and comes with 160 acres of land and its own working railway.

His efforts will form the backbone of a new TV series following his attempt to turn the ageing estate into a workable home.

Carr said he was in his "turret-era" after spending time at Ardross Castle in the Highlands last summer while filming The Celebrity Traitors.

News imageGSC Grays A redstone castle with prominent turrets with fields and trees around it. There is a lawn and a driveway and turning area in front of the main entrance GSC Grays
Carr has bought Ayton Castle which was built in the 19th Century

"Some men when they have a midlife crisis buy a Lamborghini or grow a ponytail, but me - I want my very own castle," he said.

"Since I was a boy in Northampton, I've always dreamt big, and have always been enchanted with the history and romance of a stately home and as I turn 50, I feel it's my time.

"All I want is a turret to call my own - get me over that drawbridge."

The comedian's journey will be filmed for a new Disney+ programme.

The programme has the working title Castle Man in reference to his former Channel 4 talk show Chatty Man.

News imageBBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells A group of people, the Celebrity Traitors and Claudia Winkleman, standing in front of a castle with a dark sky behind it.BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells
Carr's time filming the Traitors is said to have spurred him on to buy his own castle

Carr's sprawling new pad was put on the market with an asking price of more than £3.25m last summer.

Set in more than 160 acres near Eyemouth, it is one of only two baronial buildings designed by architect James Gillespie Graham.

The castle's history stretches back to a medieval tower house, and its interiors were once decorated by Edinburgh firm Bonnar and Carfrae.

Their work had an unlikely brush with literary fame: during a visit in 1873, Mark Twain was so taken with the dining‑room mantelpiece at Ayton Castle that he purchased it. It now sits in the Mark Twain House and Museum in Connecticut.

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The site also includes a rare 16th Century beehive-shaped dovecot and a private chapel.

The previous owners, who bought the property in 2014, carried out substantial refurbishment.

As part of that, they built a 600m (1,969 ft) narrow‑gauge railway that runs through part of the grounds, which visitors to the castle can pay to ride.