Queen legend Sir Brian May reportedly interested in buying £35m Rothbury estate

The 9,500 acre Rothbury Estate, currently owned by Lord Max Percy, the Duke of Northumberland’s youngest son, was put on the market last month.

Rock legend Sir Brian, 76, was sighted with his actress wife Anita Dobson taking a helicopter tour and then visiting several locations on the estate.

Cllr Steven Bridgett, who represents the Rothbury ward on Northumberland County Council, had expressed concern the estate could fall into the wrong hands so now hopes the couple follow up on their initial interest.

He told Gilly Hope’s BBC Radio Newcastle show: "There were multiple sightings. He may have spoken, I don't want to give the game away but there was a certain person dropping something off at one of the properties on the estate and bumped into him and he did say something along the lines of 'you look like Brian May.'"

"And I believe his response was 'Well, I am.' So I think the person who bumped into him got a shock as well."

"But from a personal perspective I've been a fan of Queen since I was a kid. If he's buying property up here, we've at least got to get a concert out of him!"

The musician, an avid animal-welfare campaigner, bought 157 acres of agricultural land in Dorset in 2013 and has since turned it into a woodland wildlife sanctuary.

The sale of the Rothbury Estate, which has been in the Percy family for around 700 years and includes the Simonside hills, is the largest single block of land to come to the market in England in the last 30 years.

According to the estate’s brochure, published by Newcastle-based Knight Frank, the estate contains 12 farms, more than 1,800 acres of woodland, salmon and sea trout fishing opportunities, a grouse moor, opportunities to shoot pheasants and partridges, as well as 23 residential properties, a caravan park with 10 plots and the Crown and Thistle Inn Pub.

While elements of the land are managed by Northumberland Estates, the company has stressed the sale is private.

The land belonged to the monarch for a century from 1095 after the rebellion of Earl Robert Mowbray, and was passed to the second Henry Percy of Alnwick in 1328, and officially confirmed in 1331.

Cllr Bridgett had previously expressed hope of persuading Northumberland County Council to register the land as a community asset, giving community groups time to raise the required funding.

Last month he said: “My fear is that we may see this estate go the same way we have seen many other estates in the south of England and in Wales go – bought up by a business or corporation for tax purposes or by someone with more money than sense.

“I really do worry what may happen to this area if we end up with someone who wants to restrict access, remove car parks (or make them pay), completely plant the area up with commercial forestry or look to develop it. Whoever buys it will want a return on their investment. It is for those reasons that I think we have got to try.”

A spokesperson for Sir Brian declined to comment.