Music legend Bob Dylan sells Scottish estate to whisky distiller

The Nobel prize winner had owned the 16-bedroom Aultmore House since 2006.

Dylan and his younger brother, music producer David Zimmerman, stayed on the 25-acre Highlands estate for a few weeks each year but have not visited since the Covid pandemic.

Tom Stewart-Moore of Knight Frank estate agents, told the Telegraph: “They bought it as a base. They’ve not been able to use it in recent years and that’s the reason for the sale.”

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The brothers bought the house, which is near Speybridge in the north of the Cairngorms National Park, for £2.2 million. It was listed for “offers over” £3m earlier in 2023.

The Telegraph reported that the house has been sold for £4.2m to whisky producer Angus Dundee Distillers.

The firm owns whisky brands including Tomintoul, Glencadam, and Old Ballantruan.

Aultmore House (above) 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 Edwardian mansion was purchased by the Nivinson family in 1922, who owned Aultmore for over 50 years.

While it was a convalescent home during the Second World War, it remained in the family until 1978.

It was also used as a finishing school for foreign students and a bed and breakfast for holidaymakers before it was acquired by the American singer-songwriter.

The Scottish countryside and Celtic culture has featured in Dylan's work and he has long acknowledged his debt to Scottish and Irish folk music.

In 2004, Dylan was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the University of St Andrews.

He chose Robert Burns's A Red, Red Rose, written in 1794, as one of his all-time favorite poems and has said that Scottish folklorist Hamish Henderson's song The 51st (Highland) Division's Farewell to Sicily influenced his song The Times They Are A Changin'.