A COUNTRY estate belonging to North Yorkshire's millionaire theme park owner Gordon Gibb has been put up for sale.

But with a £4.5 million price tag, even a win on last night's National Lottery wouldn't have been enough to cover the cost of the 65 acre site.

The jackpot would leave the winner having to stump up an extra £2.3 million to buy the 9,000sq ft, eight bedroomed house near Pickering.

For the past two years Kingthorpe House has been the subject of a restoration project by Flamingo Land owner Mr Gibb, who originally intended for the house to be his family home.

Kingthorpe’s heritage stretches back to a mention in the Doomsday Book of 1086 with the current country house being developed by the Fothergill family in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The house, which has six reception rooms, was also the home of Richard Rowntree and his family for three decades from 1966.

The sale, which also includes a coach house, stables and detached cottage, is being managed by York-based property agent Croft Residential. Director Toby Cockcroft said: "This is one of the finest country estates in the north of England and the comprehensive renovation programme that has only just been completed makes it certainly one of the most high tech large estates on the market.

“The attention to detail that the owner has shown in specifying the original features and carefully restoring the fabric of the building is really impressive.

"Mr Gibb has taken the opportunity to incorporate all the latest technology whilst the renovations were taking place, making this effectively a brand new, state of the art home with every conceivable technology already built-in ready to be lived in for the first time since its complete renovation."

High-tech features in the historic house include an integrated sound system, hard wiring for broadband, ground source heating and Aquavision TVs in the bathrooms.

Mr Gibb took over running Flamingo Land in the mid 1990's following the death of his father in a car crash. He was also chairman of Bradford City Football club until his resignation in 2004.