One of the best-known private estates in the Outer Hebrides has been snapped up by a multi-millionaire who made his fortune in the international minerals market.
The Cheshire-based businessman Mick Clark has now concluded a deal for the purchase of the 5,570-acre Scaliscro Estate, on the west coast of Lewis.
It boasts extensive deer shooting opportunities as well as salmon, sea-trout and brown-trout fisheries and a 23-bedroom lodge, which sits in an elevated position overloooking Loch Roag.
The business was formerly owned by Cristin “Cree” MacKenzie, the son of wealthy business tycoon Jock MacKenzie, who died in 2000 at the age of 74.
Jock MacKenzie made his fortune investing in family firms and in 1969, after acquiring the Lewis estate, bought over Kenneth MacKenzie Holdings in Stornoway, at the time the largest producer of Harris Tweed.
The sale of the estate, which at one time had fish-farming interests and a mussel farm, also includes the sporting lease over a further 5,000 acres of common grazing land.
Scaliscro went on the market in August last year with a price tag of £2.5 million.
Mr Clark surveyed his new estate last week, but declined media interviews.
However, Richard Seaman, from Stirling-based estate agents, Goldsmith and Co, who will be managing the estate on his behalf, said: “It will be business as usual.
“We already manage a similar Highland estate up in Sutherland where we have substantial experience of dealing with crofters and engaging with the community.”
