Alan Carr, who won The Celebrity Traitors, is rumoured to have spent around £3.5 million on his very own castle and has signed up to star in brand new show Castle Man for Disney+
19:19, 25 Mar 2026Updated 19:20, 25 Mar 2026
Alan Carr is rumoured to have spent around £3.5 million on Ayton Castle, a 17 bedroom fortress on the Scottish borders. He says: “I watch a lot of property porn. I did go castle shopping on Rightmove. It was on the turret section and I wanted two, three or four.”(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells)
Turrets may not be your average Rightmove search term, but Alan Carr is hardly your typical buyer. Hanging out in Andross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, which played home to The Celebrity Traitors gave Alan, 49, a taste for baronial grandeur that he couldn’t shake off. Now rumoured to have spent around £3.5 million on Ayton Castle, a 17 bedroom fortress on the Scottish borders, he says: “I watch a lot of property porn. I did go castle shopping on Rightmove. It was on the turret section and I wanted two, three or four.”
Now signed up to star in Castle Man for Disney+, the show will see him attempting to run the castle, which comes with the potential title of ‘Laird of Ayton – a 700-year-old barony title, Alan says: “I just wanted one [a castle].” Despite attempts to resist falling for the 175-year-old property – which replaced a mansion that burnt down in 1834 – he says: “When I put an offer in, I went up the drive and thought ‘don’t fall in love.’ And then I just fell in love with it.
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“You sound like a w***er when you say you have got a castle. But I want to do community based things. I want to give something back like with animals. That is what excites me more. I will have fetes, dog shows there; comedy at the castle and the best vegetable competition. I will be there to judge the biggest courgette in the village.”
Home sweet home… Ayton Castle, Alan Carr’s new abode in the Scottish borders
Refuting claims that he’s used Disney+ money to buy the castle purely for the purposes of the show, Alan says: “No … I have bought the castle. I am selling up. I am moving up there. It is genuine. “I am moving up to Scotland and it is not for work. When you watch the show the penny will drop and people will want to come on the journey with me. I am 50 [this year] and I won’t be doing this at 60. It’s now or never. It is not a gimmick.”
Explaining how he fell in love with the Traitors’ castle Alan, who has been living in a bachelor pad in trendy Crouch End, north London, following his divorce from husband Paul Drayton in 2022, says: “I loved it in The Traitors. “You have a lot of down time. I was mincing around there and sitting in the library and thought ‘this is amazing.’ It did make me think ‘I want a castle.’ I mean I am entering my turret era. I am 50 this year and I know it seems I am having a mid life crisis. I don’t know what came over me!”
A Category A listed building, there are restrictions on altering Alan’s castle. He says: “Someone heard I was turning it into a spa that gifted me a jacuzzi. I have no idea what I am going to do with it. It is just me hitting the ground running.” But he hopes to bring some of the interior design skills he learned working with Amanda Holden, restoring a dilapidated villa in Corfu on the BBC show Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job, and before that a crumbling townhouse in Amanda & Alan’s Spanish Job to his refurb.
Alan says of his winning Traitors performance: “I have never had a reaction like it. It was insane. I have been offered loads of stuff after The Traitors.” (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Speaking at Advertising Week Europe, he says: “This is the first time I have taken part in a reality series which is so personal. Hopefully, people will see a side of me that they don’t normally see.” While there is no release date yet for the Disney+ show, Alan is hoping it will get people talking as much as The Celebrity Traitors did.
He says of his winning Traitors performance: “I have never had a reaction like it. It was insane. I have been offered loads of stuff after The Traitors.” Of Castle Man, he continues: ”There will be bad things said, but there will be good things said.
“I want my show to be authentic, as in this AI world now you don’t know what is real or not. “We want proper authentic reality. I cry so much on camera now since Traitors. Was it authentic? You did not see the onions. It was awful! But it is great to be stopped in the street. When TV is done well it has that power. It is good to have that connection where you say ‘did you see that last night?’”
Comparing himself to the genie in Disney’s Aladdin, he laughs: “I am cheeky, funny, and if you rub me the right way … that’s a bit creepy!”. When it comes to turning a profit, he is hoping he will show more business acumen than he did when he was on Celebrity Apprentice in 2009 – a special show for Comic Relief.
Alan with co-host Amanda Holden on Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Voltage TV/Zak Walton)
He says: “I was the first celebrity to be fired from The Apprentice. Alan Sugar pointed at me and said ‘tell me why I should not fire you?’ I was like ‘I don’t know.’ I cried on The Apprentice after Alan fired me. I am going to show him now. The castle loses money every year, so I have got to try and turn that around.
“I have not got the keys yet and I need to get up there. When I get there I will try to make it a dream instead of a nightmare.” Asked for three words to sum up his castle purchase, Alan says: “I would say debt, mortgage, bankrupt. No it will be magical, enchanting, beautiful.”
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