Billionaire on track to be largest landowner in country

A DANISH billionaire is on course to become Scotland’s largest private landowner as he continues to pursue his plans for environmental improvement in the Highlands.

Clothing magnate Anders Holch Povlsen, who is reputed to be worth £4 billion, currently owns 218,364 acres, or about one per cent of Scotland.

This is still behind the 242,000 acres largely owned by Buccleuch Estates Ltd for the Duke of Buccleuch in the south of Scotland.

But Mr Povlsen’s next acquisition will be a “gamechanger” which will see the Duke toppled, according to Thomas MacDonell, head of conservation for Wildland, a company set up by Mr Povlsen to manage his Scottish interests.

Mr McDonell said: “We already own almost as much land as Buccleuch but of course that isn’t the goal.

“We want to bring natural environments back to the Highlands, and implement landscape-scale habitat enhancement in the presence of herbivores and people.”

Mr Povlsen, 44, has been criticised in the past for aggressive deer culls in his efforts to regenerate native woodland and conserve indigenous species such as black grouse and capercaillie. He has also indicated support for reintroducing lynx to help control deer numbers.

Meanwhile, he has plans for a £100 million luxury spa retreat near Tongue, in Sutherland.

Eight years ago, he bought the 30,000-acre Braeroy estate, near Fort William, and the 12,600-acre Lynaberack estate, near Kingussie. Then it was the 23,000-acre Ben Hope, Ben Loyal and Kinloch estates in Sutherland. In 2013, he acquired the Gaick estate from the French designer goods heir Xavier Louis Vuitton and a year later spent £15m on Aldourie Castle, near Loch Ness.