Land in Nairn with planning permission for 300 homes and a golf course has been put up for sale by an aristocratic family.
The Cawdor Maintenance Trust, which has Lady Angelika Cawdor, known as Dowager Countess of Cawdor, as one of its trustees, was originally granted planning permission for the £70 million development at Delnies in 2015.
But now, more than a decade since the project has been on the table, the trust has put the 68-acre land up for sale.
It hoped to build an 18-hole course, a luxury hotel, a tourism and heritage centre, equestrian centre and housing and predicted the project would create more than 500 pre and post-construction jobs..
However, Shepherd Chartered Surveyors is now marketing the land which sits north of the A96 Inverness-Aberdeen route at Delnies.
Agricultural land runs along the eastern and western boundaries while to the north the site is bounded by Nairn Golf Club.
Long running project
Initial plans for the development were tabled in 2008 with outline planning permission granted in 2012 and consent was granted in 2015.
However, Cawdor Maintenance Trust wanted to vary a condition to build a new roundabout off the A96 to access the site by instead building a “ghost island” T-junction for cost purposes, which was refused by Highland council.
The trust lodged an appeal with the Scottish Government arguing that the junction would be suitable, and argued that reduced traffic flow from a proposed Nairn bypass would make it safer.
But the appeal was dismissed by a Scottish Government reporter.
Permission for land granted
The planning permission in principle was recently extended to January 2024 including a new, revised set of planning conditions and an amended S75 Agreement.
Shepherd Chartered Surveyors Inverness office partner Neil Calder said: “This is a major development, and we anticipate there will be strong demand from a range of regional and national housebuilders.
“Initial considerations indicate that the site has the potential to accommodate a larger number of housing units.”
Long running feud
Cawdor Maintenance Trust was set up in 1984 by the late earl to aid in the upkeep of Cawdor Castle, which has links to Macbeth.
There’s been a long running history of animosity between fellow trustee Colin Campbell, the 7th Earl of Cawdor and Lady Cawdor.
It was ignited when the late Hugh John Vaughan Campbell, the 6th Earl of Cawdor, left the family’s ancestral home to Lady Cawdor in 1993, rather than to his eldest son.
The 15th-century tower house and gardens opened to the public in 1976 and has become one of the area’s most popular attractions, with 90,000 visitors a year.
It is best known for its literary connection to Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, in which the title character becomes the castle’s owner, having been made Thane of Cawdor.
In 2003, while Lady Angelika was holidaying in New York, the Earl moved his family into Cawdor. It took a court order for him to be removed.
And in 2006 Mr Campbell tried unsuccessfully to remove through the courts to remove Lady Cawdor as a trustee.
In August 2020 Mr Campbell was enraged after his Czech stepmother applied to build an events, exhibition and banqueting venue in the garden of Cawdor Castle, near Nairn.
The plans were approved by Highland Council.
The Press & Journal did contact the Cawdor Maintenance Trust for comment but no one was available.