Whisky cask bought for £130 goes on sale for nearly £270,000 after 55 years

Angus Kerr bought a cask of Glenrothes single-malt whisky for £130 in 1971, hoping the investment would eventually help pay his children’s education costs. Fifty-five years later, the cask has been put on the market for about £270,000.

Kerr, an 81-year-old retiree from Surrey, decided to buy the cask after hearing that a company sold newly filled whisky barrels. A former commodities trader, he intended to sell it again after roughly five years and make a profit.

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At the time, I thought that even if I lost the money, I could afford it, so I decided to invest.

That plan collapsed when the company that sold the cask went bankrupt. Kerr lost contact with the seller and came to believe that his investment had effectively disappeared. “I put my hands up and thought, ‘Yes, that was a foolish thing to do,’” he recalled.

He then forgot about the cask. Years later, an unexpected message brought it back to his attention.

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I put my hands up and thought, ‘Yes, that was a foolish thing to do.’