Danish billionaires plan to rewild large swath of Scottish Highlands

Scotland’s largest private landowners want to reverse years of land mismanagement, says adviser

Severin Carrell Scotland editor
Thu 21 Mar 2019 07.00 GMT

The Danish billionaires who are now Scotland’s largest private landowners are trying to restore the Highlands for generations to come, one of their closest advisers has said.

Tim Kirkwood said that Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen, who own more than 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) across Sutherland and the Grampian mountains wanted to become pioneers of rewilding by reversing years of mismanagement by previous lairds.

“We have aspirations to be exemplars of community engagement,” Kirkwood said. “It is not land ownership for the sake of land ownership.”

Along with other major landowners, the Povlsens, reputedly worth £4.5bn from Anders Povlsen’s clothing empire, including the largest shareholding in the online retailer Asos, face fresh pressure to justify their dominance after a new report to ministers on Wednesday.

In a report for the Scottish government, the Scottish Land Commission said the heavy concentration of land ownership in a small number of hands, including private owners, charities and government agencies, constitutes a monopoly, which undermined the public interest.

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