Bob Dylan’s former house in the Cairngorms gets new name
The times they are a changin’ at a stately home until recently owned by legendary US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
Major proposals have come forward to give some TLC to Aultmore House on the outskirts of Nethy Bridge - including a name change.
New owners Angus Dundee Distillers PLC are now calling the property Tomintoul House.
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Additions will include a cinema, gym, spa treatment rooms, snooker and table tennis room and golf simulator as part of a second floor leisure area
The company has applied for extensive alterations to the A-listed building constructed between 1912 and 1914 as a summer holiday residence for Aberdonian industrialist Archibald Merrilees, and its surroundings.
These also include the creation of staff accommodation on ground floor; en-suites on the first floor; a reduction in attic bedrooms from three to one and creation of the leisure area; remodelling of the main entrance steps; reinstatement of the dilapidated fountain including installing a new centrepiece and repairs to the driveway.
Photographs accompanying the application have shown that parts of the Mannerist classical house and its grounds are looking tired and unkempt.
Proposals also include installing CCTV at the property’s gates, upgrading the driveway to tarmac and making outside steps more elegant.
Inverness-based CRGP Ltd is handling the application lodged with Highland Council planners.
Aultmore House was purchased by the musician and his brother David Zimmerman for £2.2m in 2006.
Angus Dundee Distillers Plc bought the property for £4.25 million in September last year.
The firm produce award-winning whiskies including the Tomintoul single malt, Glencadam and Old Ballantruan.
It owns Tomintoul Distillery and Glencadam in Brechin and has a bottling and production plant in Coatbridge.
The grand house set in 25 acres was sold after Merrliees’ death and extended in 1922 by the Nivinson family who owned the home was more than 50 years.
It was commandeered as a convalescent home during the Second World War.
