Aston Martin Reveals 'Sylvan Rock', Its First Home

It’s no secret that Aston Martin’s design work is well appreciated outside the walls of the automotive industry.

And as such, the famous marque has dipped its toe into a number of endeavours including motorcycles, helicopters, boats and has now unveiled its first residence.

Designed in partnership with S3 Architecture, Sylvan Rock is a home set on a 22.2-hectare property in New York’s green Hudson Valley.

Accessed via a 610-metre driveway bordered by trees and rock walls, the main residence sees an angular form that takes its cues from the rock formations that make the surrounds so unique.

The home is encased in blackened cedar and glass and features four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two half baths and three-car automotive gallery garage (hello, lairs and galleries program). Elsewhere sees a custom wine cellar – wrapped in Aston’s signature cross-hatched lattice design, pool and an 81sqm pool house.

The living spaces give way to nature through double-height ceiling and walls of glass with a columnar fireplace the showpiece. Naturally, the interiors are furnished by Aston Martin home while the kitchen is informed by a monolithic island and private dining table fitted with Miele appliances, column refrigeration and the latest cooking tech.

The primary bedroom suite is glass-clad and cantilevers over the rock ledge to take in views of the Catskills mountains in the distance. Here you’ll also find a walk-in closet complete with a night bar for a pre-bed tipple.

The main bathroom sees two-person shower, double vanity, soaking tub and more of those natural views.

Not limited to the singular structure, the property also features multi-functional guest house “pods”, a treehouse, and an agricultural garden.

Best yet, it can be yours for approx. $10.8 million; sylvanrock.com

Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.

The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.

“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”

Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.

The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”

Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.

The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.

The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.

The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”

The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”

The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”

Aston Martin Reveals ‘Sylvan Rock’, Its First Home

Step inside the first private residence offered by the British marque.

The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.