PLANS for a vital new care home on the north coast were changed after Scotland’s richest man complained it would ruin the view from his luxury hotel.
Anders Povlsen’s company Wildland Limited argued that building a care home next to its “boutique” Lundies House hotel in the village of Tongue would harm the “panoramic” views guests enjoy of nearby beauty spots.
The firm has since struck a deal with Highland Council and the local NHS to pay for the building of a larger care “hub” on a different plot it owns in the village. Wildland would own this new facility and lease it back to the council and health service to run it.
A key part of the deal is that Wildland will take ownership of the original site next to Lundies House from the council, a move that has been criticised by Tongue locals who fear they will lose access to an important piece of public green space in the village.
The project on Wildland’s site was given planning permission in 2023 and has been hailed as “transformational” for the area by the council.
But a former leader of Highland Council told The Ferret it could be seen as the latest in a long line of examples of “very rich people buying up land to impose their own vision on a place”.
Additionally, one land campaigner argued the development of Scotland’s communities “should not be reliant on the benevolence of individual landowners” and warned that deals like this could be used to consolidate landowner power and help them amass more land.
Danish tycoon Povlsen (below), who made his fortune as the boss of clothes retailer Bestseller, was ranked as Scotland’s richest man in 2024 with a net worth of £6.3 billion. He is also Scotland’s largest private landowner, with more than 220,000 acres across 13 estates.
Wildland was set up in 2007 to manage Povlsen’s Scottish estates and has been praised by some environmentalists for the rewilding activities it undertakes on its land.
The company says it has a 200-year vision of “ecological rehabilitation in the Scottish Highlands” and wants to make an “active and meaningful contribution to the rebirth of Scotland’s living landscapes”.
Povlsen’s involvement in major projects on the north coast, where Wildland owns large tracts of land, has led to controversy.
In 2021, the magnate was branded “manipulative” and “undemocratic” after The Ferret revealed he had lobbied against a spaceport in Sutherland which is viewed as an important employment opportunity in the area.
The care home project in Tongue has been in the works for a number of years and will replace an ageing residential care home in nearby Melvich and another in Talmine which closed in 2023. Both had been under threat of closure since as far back as 2008.
Wildland became involved after it was proposed that the new facility be built on land owned by the council in front of Lundies House. That site was chosen partly because it is close to the existing GP surgery in the village which would help “consolidate” health and care services.
According to planning documents, Wildland raised “significant concerns” that guests at Lundies would have been able to see the back of the care facility and its car park. This would “diminish” the setting of the hotel and the “panoramic view to Castle Varrich and the Kyle of Tongue from the principal rooms”, the firm argued.
B-listed Lundies House was formerly a church manse before it was restored by Wildland and lies on the route of the North Coast 500. A one-night stay for two can cost up to £650 and the hotel’s website describes it as a “place to feel the rhythms of nature and find a deep connection with a raw and unspoilt landscape”.
A deal was struck between the council, NHS and Wildland to build a larger facility on another site owned by Wildland in Tongue. This “enhanced” care “hub” will also include a new GP surgery on site.
Planning permission was granted for the redesigned project in 2023. That was despite an objection from Highland Council’s historic environment team who warned that the “incongruous nature of the design and siting” could itself impact views of the category A-listed St Andrew’s Church in the village, which it described as a heritage asset of “national significance”.
In 2021, Highland Council announced it would provide £5 million of the total £10.5m budget for Wildland’s project. But the local authority told The Ferret it will now “carry no capital implications” for the council.
The facility will be owned by Wildland and leased back to the council to run the care home and the NHS to run the GP surgery.
A controversial aspect of the deal between the council and Wildland has been the future of the land in front of Lundies House which was initially earmarked for the care home.
A “key basis” of the deal was that ownership of this passed from the council to the firm once construction of the new hub was complete.
Locals have expressed concern that the community will have no green space of its own in Tongue, and would have to go “cap in hand” to Wildland if it wanted to host future events on the site.
Josh Doble, policy manager at the land reform campaign group Community Land Scotland, said the group had concerns about Wildland’s activities in Tongue.
He told The Ferret they should be a “wake-up call” to policymakers on how “power operates in communities dominated by wealthy, monopoly landowners”.
Doble said that while landowners stepping in to provide essential infrastructure could help secure “much-needed services” for communities, it could also lead to “consolidation of their power” and help them “amass further land and assets” such as the land near Lundies House.
“The development of Scotland’s communities should not be reliant on the benevolence of individual landowners, this is not sustainable or equitable,” he concluded.
Doble’s view was echoed by Peter Peacock, the former leader of Highland Council.
Peacock, who has also worked with Community Land Scotland in the past, told The Ferret that the Highlands has “had generation after generation of very rich people buying up land to impose their own vision on a place”.
Peacock added: “I’m sure Highland Council will have taken a pragmatic view of the circumstances that presented themselves and the villagers in Tongue and surrounding settlements will welcome new facilities.
“But in all circumstances, it seems to me infinitely preferable that local people make choices for their communities unfettered by the influence of ‘big money’.”
Nick Kempe, a land expert and author of the popular Parkswatchscotland blog, argued that Povlsen’s involvement with the Tongue care home was a “complex” issue.
Kempe noted: “There are not many landowners in Scotland who would be prepared to work with a local authority to find a solution.”
However, he did express serious concerns about a “lack of transparency” on the financial aspects of the deal and said whether it was in the public interest would depend on the terms of the lease agreed with Wildland.
NHS Highland and Highland Council issued a joint statement to The Ferret which confirmed the council was no longer providing any funding towards the project and would pay rent to Wildland.
Neither body responded to questions about why the deal included the transfer of the land next to Lundies House to Wildland or how much it would pay Wildland in rent for the facility.
Wildland was asked to comment but did not respond.
Its chief executive, Tim Kirkwood, said in 2021: “We have worked positively with both NHS Highland and Highland Council to bring forward a proposal for a care home that everyone can be proud of.
“We look forward to playing our part in realising the healthcare hub ambition as soon as possible, our aim is to make it the best it can possibly be.”
