Hope out of hate: Tragic tycoon battles on with Highland dream

He is Britain’s largest private landowner, possessor of 221,000 acres comprising 13 of scotland’s finest estates, which he intends to ‘return to the wild’.

Now Danish fashion tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, who recently suffered the ‘incomprehensible’ loss of three of his four children to islamist suicide bombers in sri Lanka, is demonstrating that his commitment to the people of scotland remains undiminished.

The Asos billionaire is in talks — which began before the easter Day atrocities — to help NHs Highland build a new ‘health hub’ with a medical centre and nursing and care home for the benefit of those living in isolated communities in sutherland on scotland’s north-west coast.

Tim Kirkwood, chief executive of Wildland Limited, the company which Povlsen and his wife Anne established to protect and sustain some of scotland’s most beautiful landscapes, explains his intention.

‘ The reason Anders wants to do this is he wants something everyone can be proud of, over the longer term,’ Kirkwood tells me.

Wildland is in discussions with the Church of scotland about buying five acres of church land at the remote coastal village of Tongue.

Once the acquisition is complete, Kirkwood says: ‘Wildland will assist with

additional funding over and above the core funding [from the NHs] to ensure that a really good care home is built on this site.’

Povlsen, 46, first visited scotland as a child and has been entranced by the country ever since. Recently he contributed to the funding of the North Coast 500 — a 500- mile coastal road through some of scotland’s most breathtaking scenery, much of which is now safeguarded for posterity by Wildland.

‘He was and remains keen to see an excellent development for the care of people in the community,’ says Kirkwood of Povlsen’s latest project.

‘it is early days, but it is an ambition and it is gaining support from various stakeholders and the local community.’