Alan Carr's Ayton Castle contents and concrete menagerie go to auction

Ayton Castle’s contents are going under the hammer, with 400 lots from the 19th-century Berwickshire estate bought by Alan Carr for £3.25 million. Items Carr did not want, along with objects the previous owners also left behind, are being broken into auction lots at the Scottish Borders property.

Railtons has scheduled the auction for Sunday 5 July 2026 at 10am, with viewing on Friday 3 July and Saturday 4 July. Tickets are required for both the viewing and the auction, and Jim Railton called the material on offer the castle’s “residual contents.” The catalogue ranges from furniture, pictures, textiles, rugs and ceramics to more unusual pieces tied to the estate’s recent past.

The most distinctive block of lots comes from the Branxton Cement Menagerie, with 93 pieces listed from the folk-art collection. The menagerie began in the 1960s when a retired joiner created painted concrete animals and figures to entertain his disabled son, eventually building a display of more than 200 sculptures that became a local attraction in Branxton, Northumberland. The sale includes animals and figurative pieces such as a baby rhinoceros and stone tortoises, and the collection is called “iconic folk art.” It was bought and moved to Ayton Castle in 2021 after a £20,000 hammer price.

Ayton Castle itself was built in the 19th century to a design by James Gillespie Graham and has 17 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a five-storey Great Tower, turrets, a private chapel and 106-acre listed gardens. The previous owners also added a 600m narrow-gauge railway through part of the grounds, and it is being itemised in the sale. One headline lot is a 2011 Bentley Mulsanne with a 6.7-litre engine and 40,645 recorded miles, estimated at £20,000 to £30,000. At the other end of the catalogue, some railway time boards are expected to fetch just £10 to £15.