Sex scandals, bitterness and broken promises... the toxic legacy that has torn my family apart; Tory MP tells of his anguish after his disgraced aristocrat father cut him out of his will and cost him his ancestral [pounds sterling]3m home.(News)

Byline: by Jane Simpson

AS a boy, he used to run its sweeping corridors and terraced lawns, climbing the towering pine trees and fishing the majestic river. But such distant childhood memories are long since faded for Ian Liddell-Grainger, decades later cast out of his baronial birthright and forced to watch from the sidelines as his once proud heritage crumbles to dust.

The Tory MP has been left 'heartbroken' by an extraordinary chain of scandals which has engulfed his cherished childhood home of Ayton Castle, ripping his family apart and now putting the stunning property on the market for [pounds sterling]3 million.

Speaking for the first time about the anguish of watching the Borders ancestral pile, which he should have inherited, leave his clan for the first time in more than a century, the 52-year-old described the sale as 'a travesty'.

The MP for Bridgwater in Somerset said: 'I speak on behalf of all of my immediate family when I say we are absolutely heartbroken. This sale is the most appalling piece of vandalism to Scotland's countryside. It's a loss to the nation's heritage. As a family, we feel it is an utter travesty.' In a tale more lurid and twisted than any dreamed up by a novelist or TV scriptwriter, the ramparts of the Berwickshire castle have borne witness to decades of drama and misery.

Central to the unsavoury plot was a menage a trois within its 19th Century bedchambers, conducted by the MP's late father David Liddell-Grainger, a married friend and her husband. All three lived together and scandalised Scotland's chattering classes.

Scotland's chattering classes.

Eyebrows continued to be raised when, following the 77-year-old laird's death …