Meet the balding billionaire who’s buying up Scotland bit by (very big) bit Dane owns more of nation than Queen
HE is a Danish billionaire who owns a bigger chunk of Scotland than the Queen – and hopes one day to release wolves back into the Highlands.
Now, Anders Holch Povlsen has become Scotland’s second biggest landowner after buying another two country estates – to add to the nine he already owned.
The businessman, who inherited the Danish Bestseller fashion empire from his parents, now owns more than 200,000 acres of Scottish land.
He is said to be a keen walker who still lives in Denmark even though he visits Scotland every six weeks.
In his latest purchase, Mr Povlsen splashed out £8 million on the 21,034acre Strathmore estate at Altnaharra and the 6,242-acre Polla estate near Durness in Sutherland.
Only the Duke of Buccleuch, with 240,000 acres, has more land. But while the Duke of Buccleuch’s land has been in his family since the 15th century, the Dane bought his first estate only ten years ago. And he has hinted he is still keen to increase his Scottish holdings – which could see him become the country’s biggest private landowner.
‘We get approached with potential purchases regularly and there may be more in the future,’ said Thomas MacDonell, who is the director of Mr Povlsen’s Scottish conservation company, Wildland Ltd.
He added: ‘Mr Povlsen has a real passion for real wild places and Scotland. Sometimes I challenge him on how will we ever make this financially sustainable but he just shrugs and says, “Let’s hope we can still keep selling clothes”. We want Scotland to keep its wilderness.’ The 44-year-old began his estate shopping spree in 2006 with the purchase of the 43,000acre Glenfeshie estate in Invernessshire. He splurged another £2 million on a neighbouring farm, which added 4,000 acres. Two years later, he bought the 12,600-acre Lynaberack estate near Kingussie and snapped up the 30,000-acre Braeroy estate, near Fort William, in 2009.
The same year, he bought the neighbouring Tulloch estate and four years later added the 20,000-acre Gaick estate from Xavier Louis Vuitton.
A £15 million purchase of the Aldourie Castle estate in 2014 was followed by a deal in which he swapped some of his Highland woodland with the Forestry Commission Scotland in return for 1,000 acres in the Borders. His latest acquisitions mean he owns two enormous swathes of adjoining or near neighbouring land in northern Scotland.
Mr Povlsen is thought to have ploughed around £100 million into Scottish estates and land, and Mr MacDonell said Wildland’s estate portfolio in the far north alone was worth more than £30 million. The billionaire also raised eyebrows after saying he hoped one day to return wolves and lynx to the Highlands. Mr Povlsen already has land in the Carpathian Mountains, in Romania, where he is creating a wilderness reserve for wolves, bears and lynx.
Mr MacDonell said the reintroduction of wild animals in Scotland was a long-term objective, saying it ‘would be desirable – but not now’. He said: ‘Wolves will be a step too far at the moment – lynx could be sooner – but any reintroduction will require proper
‘A real passion for wild places’
consultation. We are starting logically at the beginning by trying to get the habitat in the right shape – and tourism is the way to get it selfsupporting. People need to share in the success to make it work. Mr Povlsen does not consider he owns the land but is a custodian of it.’
The Dane also has plans for a £100 million luxury spa in Hope, one of the remotest parts of the country. And Mr Povlsen plans to renovate a series of buildings across the Kinloch, Hope and Loyal estates. In a mission statement on its website, Wildland says the ‘objective is to purchase wild land to protect it against exploitation and to preserve as much wild nature and its beauty as possible for future generations’.
Mr Povlsen has emphasised his environmental credentials, pointing out that since 2006 more than 1,200 acres of mature woodlands, including Caledonian pine, has been regenerated at Glenfeshie.