Alan Carr jokes he's in his 'turret era' after buying £3.2m Traitors-style castle in Scottish Borders

The 49-year-old TV star has bought the 17-bedroom Ayton Castle - a 19th century baronial-style mansion that bears a striking resemblance to the one where the hit reality show is filmed.

The A-listed building, nestled two miles inland from the Berwickshire coast, is set within 160 acres of land and has its own miniature railway.

The property had been put up for sale with an asking price of more than £3.25 million.

The Traitors winner is reportedly documenting the transformation for a new Disney+ programme titled Castle Man.

Appearing as a guest on The Jonathan Ross Show earlier this month, he said: “I’m buying a castle. I’m having a midlife crisis. I want a turret to call my own. I’m in my turret era.

“I fancy a move and I loved being in The Traitors castle, so I thought, ‘I’m going to get myself one.’

“You know when people have a midlife crisis that they get a ponytail or a Lamboughini… I want a castle. You know when you fancy something? I just want one.

“I’m 50 this year – I know I don’t look it – and I just want one.”

He continued: “I know it sounds very grand. I’m moving from where I am at the minute, I want animals there, I want a community thing.

“I’m lonely where I am. It’ll be nice, having people come there and have a cream tea. I want people to come in and have donkeys and stuff everywhere.

He joked: “I want to reintroduce wolves. I want it to be like a big old zoo.”

Ayton Castle is know for being one of only two Baronial structures by the architect James Gillespie Graham, Scotland’s leading Gothic revival architect of the early 19th century.

In the listing by Knight Frank, it is described as an “iconic Scottish castle” with “limitless potential”.

It said “significant improvements” to the site had been made since the last sale in 2014.

James Denne, property consultant at GSC Grays, said: “This is an iconic Scottish Castle with land, extensive secondary accommodation and limitless potential.

“Ayton Castle is set in 160.56 acres of wonderful Scottish Borders country and is a fabulous example of baronial-style architecture and features a beehive type 16th-century dovecot among garden terraces, parkland and attractive woodland, which together make an outstanding scenic contribution to the local landscape.”

The Castle, built around a medieval tower house, has interior schemes by Scotland’s then leading houses decorators, Bonnar & Carfrae, which made such an impact on Mark Twain, author of  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that in 1873 he bought the Dining Room fireplace mantel which is now housed in the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Uniquely, the Barony of Ayton, which dates back to 1324, is also available for purchase.

Ardross Castle, where The Traitors is filmed, is also a 19th-century baronial castle.

The show has led to a surge in interest in Scotland’s castles, with tourists seeking “Traitor’s-style” tours and experiences.