A VILLAGE CALLED VENDETTA
How this rural idyll, home to just 10 families, became a battleground scarred by feuds so toxic that armed cops were called in and a sheriff had to unravel its web of bitter rivalry. The outcome? A VERY uneasy peace. For now...
WITH glorious scenery for miles and a sleepy pace of life, it should be a perfect haven of tranquillity. Yet the calm of this remote village was shattered when it became the heart of a crime scene, with armed police swarming the area amid fears a gunman was on the rampage. Officers swooped on the tiny crofting township of Polbain after residents accused a neighbour – German journalist turned crofter Reiner Luyken – of stalking along with a high-powered rifle and shooting at the road.
In response to such claims of a gun-wielding maniac on the loose, three armed response vehicles and five police cars rushed to the scene, near Ullapool in Wester Ross.
In reality, Mr Luyken, 69, was doing nothing more sinister than taking his licensed – and legal – airgun to shoot rabbits.
Now, in a newly published judgment, a sheriff has cleared Mr Luyken of any wrongdoing.
But the 11-page document also describes the background to the bogus police complaints – and paints a picture of bitter and long-running feuds that have split the village.
Sheriff David Sutherland said goodwill between residents had ‘deteriorated due to differences on political issues’, with arguments between Unionists and Nationalists being played out in ‘intemperate and illadvised postings’ on Facebook.
Meanwhile, the divisive issue of a community wind farm had added further fuel to the fire.
With claims of deliberate provocation and harassment, disputes over boundaries, arguments over straying sheep and suspicious neighbours filming each other on mobile phones, the sheriff concluded the atmosphere within Polbain was ‘unpleasant on all sides’.
His damning portrait of a village at war is at odds with the usual vision of idyllic Highland life.
Polbain is home to around ten families. It is accessible only by country roads and is made up of a few houses that look out to the sea and across to the mostly uninhabited Summer Isles.
Mr Luyken has lived in the village since 1980, with his wife Sheileagh and their four children.
As well as organising holiday lets, he writes a column, called Mail from Achiltibuie, for German newspaper
Die Zeit, humorously detailing life in BOUNDARY BATTLE: John Gunn clashed with neighbour Reiner Luyken, also his brother-in-law, over their land rural Scotland. Yet over the years, tensions have developed with other families in the village.
In the judgment published last month, Mr Sutherland said Mr and Mrs Luyken
‘Goodwill deteriorated over political differences’
had endured a ‘strained relationship’ with Iain Muir – Mrs Luyken’s second cousin – and his wife Lesley Muir, for several years. Both couples had attended each other’s weddings but tensions grew as the independence referendum approached in 2014.
While Mr Luyken was an ‘outspoken’ Unionist, according to the sheriff, the
Muirs were proud Nationalists. All were unafraid to share their views online in ‘intemperate and illadvised postings... on Facebook and emails’, Mr Sutherland found.
It was also revealed that there was an argument relating to the building of a community wind farm.
In addition, the Luykens were embroiled in a bitter inheritance dispute with Mrs Luyken’s brother, John Gunn, who lived next door.
Another long-running feud with Mr Gunn involved an argument over land boundaries between their two homes.
When Mr Luyken erected a barbed wire fence to keep Mr Gunn’s sheep off his land, his brother-in-law ripped it down.
It resulted in a highly charged incident in which Mr Luyken entered Mr Gunn’s garden to retrieve the fencing and then went into Mr Gunn’s kitchen, where he snatched his phone from his hand in retaliation for his brother-in-law filming him.
Police were called and Mr Luyken’s air rifle was confiscated, but later returned to him.
He had been granted an air weapon certificate in 2016 to aid the management of his crofts.
So, in April 2019, on a day like any other for Mr Luyken, he left his home with his air gun to go to his croft some 300 yards away.
He had planned to shoot rabbits which had been digging holes in his land. As he walked along the road from his house – his gun uncovered but ‘not loaded or charged’, the sheriff noted – he passed by Mrs Muir and another neighbour.
On his return home, Mr Luyken was confronted by Mr Muir, who said he would have to call the police because he was carrying an uncovered firearm and took a picture of him with it.
Later, at about 6.10pm, Mrs Muir contacted officers and claimed she had seen Mr Luyken strolling up and down the road with a highpowered rifle that had a silencer, intimidating neighbours.
She then rang another neighbour, Peter Drake, and told him what she had allegedly witnessed.
At 6.30pm, after receiving the call from Mrs Muir, Mr Drake also phoned the police and stated that Mr Luyken had been shooting his rifle towards the public road from his croft.
A massive emergency response was scrambled, with three armed response vehicles and five police cars despatched to Polbain on the instructions of a senior police officer in Dundee.
Officers seized Mr Luyken’s gun and certificate.
Despite action already being taken, a further call was received by police at about 8.10pm from Mr Gunn, stating that he had also seen Mr Luyken walking up the road with a gun.
The village feud ended up in court, with Mr Luyken last year
‘Intemperate and ill-advised posts’
lodging an appeal to get his weapon returned to him.
Mr Sutherland’s judgment, published last month, ruled that Mr Luyken was ‘a fit person to be entrusted with an air weapon’ – and ordered police to return his confiscated gun.
The sheriff said Mr Luyken had ‘no previous convictions and that he had complied with the conditions of his air weapons certificate over many years, in that the weapons referred to were kept in a locked room and ammunition stored in a separate room’.
The official judgment added: ‘The appellant has not acted in a threatening or abusive manner towards his neighbours in the use of his air weapon.’
Last night, the Muirs and the Gunns declined to comment on the situation.
For Mr Luyken, there is undoubtedly a sense of vindication.
As for repairing relationships within the community, however, he is not optimistic and claimed he has now moved on with his life.
He said: ‘I have a completely different network of friends now.
‘I have met people with whom I feel much better.’