Farewell to The Highlands! Singer-poet Bob Dylan will surely miss the ospreys and eagles of the Cairngorms

Eagle's eye view of Aultmore House and estate. 

AMERICAN singer-poet Bob Dylan has sold the property in the Cairngorms National Park where he used to admire ospreys, eagles (and possibly crossbills) as they flew overhead.

The 25-acre Aultmore House estate is located on the outskirts of Nethy Bridge near where RSPB has its famous Loch Garten reserve.

Built between 1911 and 1914, the main property consists of 16 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and four reception rooms.

It was commissioned by an Aberdeen-based tycoon who had made his fortune by launching an import-export company that traded with Russia.

Outside there are extensive landscaped gardens, plus a very large greenhouse and outbuildings, some of them converted to holiday lets.

Dylan (some of whose songs have lyrics inspired by Scottish poet Robbie Burns) has always loved Scotland, and the 11th and final  track of his album,  Time out of Mind,  is called Highlands.

It contains the Burns-inspired lines:

Well, my heart's in the Highlands' gentle and fair

Honeysuckle bloomin' in the Wildwood air
Bluebells blazin' where the Aberdeen waters flow
Well my heart's in the Highlands
I'm gonna go there when I feel good enough to go.

He was co-owner with his brother, David Zimmerman, of Aultmore which they bought for £2.2-million in 2006.

However, the singer is not thought to have stayed there since the pandemic and, now aged 82, travels less than when he was younger.

The property was put on the  on the books of estate agent Knight Frank in July this year with offers sought in excess of £3-million.

It is understood to have been bought by the whisky producer Angus Dundee Distillery for £4.2-million, representing a £2-million profit for Dylan & Bro.

In previous times, the estate was used to host shooting parties where capercaillie and black grouse  may have been among the target species. 

For those guests who preferred salmon and trout fishing, the River Spey is nearby.

For a while  in the Seventies, the mansion operated as a  finishing school for teenage girls from overseas, then as a conference centre.

Although he will have appreciated the birdlife of Scotland, individual species seldom, if ever, feature in Dylan's songs.

He once came up with the gloomy prognostication: "No one is free - even birds are chained to the sky."

Come this way to the back garden

   

Songbird-rich? The private drive leading to the house