POLICE visited the development of Taymouth Castle amid concerns “about wildlife crime”, The National can reveal.
Officers said they did not establish any criminality during a visit to the Discovery Land Company (DLC) development on the eastern edge of Loch Tay.
NatureScot were also in attendance during the October visit, according to documents available on the Perth and Kinross Council planning portal.
It is understood that the report to the police was connected to an application to build a “foul water treatment plant and associated drainage works” with outflow into the River Tay to the east of Taymouth Castle.
At the time of the visit, the application was still awaiting approval amid concerns raised by NatureScot about the impact on wildlife within the River Tay Special Area of Conservation (SAC), specifically species such as freshwater pearl mussels.
NatureScot said in an intervention in January 2023: “If this application is approved without consideration of this information, an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), as amended, may occur.”
However, as The National reported in October, DLC began work on the foul water treatment plant without planning permission being in place.
At the time, concerns were raised by locals who pointed to one DLC development, near Yellowstone in Montana, where the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered the firm to “stop violating the Clean Water Act” after finding repeated violations.
According to a document submitted to Perth and Kinross Council’s planning portal by the Dundee-based Millard Consulting, “unknown persons” contacted the police about the planning breach.
Police confirmed they had visited the site.
A spokesperson for the force told The National: “We attended the site on Thursday, 12 October, 2023 regarding concerns about wildlife crime. No criminality was established.”
The application for permission to build the foul water plant was granted retroactively in November.
DLC did not respond to a request for comment about the police visit.
Police previously told this paper that they would be unable to give a statement on a smashed B-listed monument on the Taymouth Castle grounds due to a lack of sufficient information.
The US-based firm is looking to develop Taymouth Castle, the neighbouring Glenlyon estate, and other parcels of land into a luxury resort aimed at the mega-rich.
Similar DLC-owned compounds – which the company calls “worlds” – charge initiation fees of up to $300,000 and follow-up annual fees of as much as $37,500.
On top of those charges, house prices on DLC land are well into the multi-million-dollar bracket, with some going as high as the tens of millions for a single property.
As well as Taymouth and Glenlyon, DLC has taken ownership of the Moness Resort in Aberfeldy, the Kenmore Hotel, the Kenmore shop and post office, Taymouth Trading, Brae Cottages, Am Fasgadh and Gatehouse, the Paper Boat restaurant, the Boathouse cottages, and further properties.
