AN ARISTOCRAT who gifted his castle to the nation after it was made famous in a Monty Python film has left more than £4 million in his will.

Douglas Stuart, the 20th Earl of Moray, died aged 83 in September last year.

He was director of one of Scotland's most successful landed estate firms and formerly owner of Doune Castle in Perthshire.

The medieval pile provided the backdrop to scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was also used in Game Of Thrones TV series.

Stuart handed the castle over to the nation in 1984 and it is now managed by Historic Scotland and is open to the public.

His recently published will shows he had an estate worth £4,125,477 at the time of his death. He ordered his wealth should be placed in a trust fund controlled by his wife Lady Malvina and their son John Douglas Stuart, now the 21st Earl of Moray.

Stuart's estate included land in Perth, Inverness and Moray which was valued at more than £2.2m. He also had a large shares portfolio worth more than £600,000. His personal possessions included a still life painting by Dutch artist Jan Davidsz de Heem called Lobster and Fruit on a Table valued at £400,000.

Stuart also had a £40,000 book collection, a £60,000 1963 S1 E-Type Jaguar and other personal effects and jewellery worth £16,500.

His estate included the Moray Silver Collection, on loan to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, valued at £302,000.

In the 1974 Monty Python film's opening scenes, King Arthur, played by Graham Chapman, sets out from the castle on his quest for the grail. A Monty Python Day is held there every year.

The castle was also the location for much of the 1952 movie Ivanhoe, starring Elizabeth Taylor.