The benevolent BILLIONAIRE

“The project will bear fruit not just for our own children but for generations”

He might own more of the UK than the Queen and the Church of Scotland put together, but Anders Holch Povlsen isn’t your average billionaire. The retail tycoon and his wife Anna are returning 200,000 acres of the Scottish Highlands to nature through their conservation organisation, Wildland.

Anders first visited Scotland from his native Denmark for a fishing trip in the 1980s. Twenty years later, he returned to buy the 42,000-acre Glenfeshie Estate in the Cairngorms and has since snapped up land and estates near Loch Ness and on the north coast. As part of his ambitious project, his team have planted four million pine, alder, birch and juniper trees, encouraging the return of capercaillie, pine martens and golden eagles. And there’s more to come. Wildland is a 200-year vision, reviving local communities as well as restoring the environment.

The landscape moves and motivates Anders, who tragically lost three of his children in a terror attack in Sri Lanka in 2019. “The Scottish Highlands has granted us abiding, special memories for our family,” he has said. “It is a project that we know cannot be realised in our lifetime, but which will bear fruit not just for our own children but also for generations.”

Wildland welcomes visitors for ‘pony picnics’ and stays. For details, visit wildland.scot.