Clan cash probe after trust puts ancient Highland lands on sale for £6.8m
Scotland's charity regulator is investigating a trust which is selling an ancient Highland clan's lands for £6.8million.
The Clan Donald Lands Trust (CDLT) has overseen Clan Donald's historic lands on the Isle of Skye since the 70s.
It announced in March it would sell the entire estate due to financial challenges. The move was met with fury by locals and families around the world with ties to the clan – one of the oldest and largest in Scotland.
Now the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has opened a probe into the CDLT's governance and finances following complaints.
A spokesman said: 'OSCR has received a number of concerns from the public about the CDLT.
'We are now engaging with the charity trustees to establish the facts of this case, and we have sought extensive information and explanation from them.
'We are specifically looking to understand the current financial position of the charity and the circumstances that led to the decision to put significant charitable assets up for sale.'
The watchdog said it would decide if further action is necessary once it has established the facts.
The CDLT was founded in 1971 to manage the clan's assets on Skye's Sleat peninsula to 'promote and preserve the history and heritage of Clan Donald'.
It currently owns the 40-acre Armadale Castle and gardens, also the site of a beloved Clan Donald heritage museum.
The CDLT has four trustees – its chair, London businessman Ranald Macdonald, owner of the Boisdale restaurants, Yorkshire-based landowner Sir Ian MacDonald of Sleat, US-based retired Major Bruce MacDonald, and Diane Carey-Schmitz.
The entire estate, covering much of the southern Sleat peninsula, is up for sale at a guide price of £6.8million. A closing date has been set for the end of the month.
We previously told how members of the US branch of Clan Donald had spoken out about their 'deep hurt' over the sale.
And we revealed last month how hundreds of families with loved ones' memorials in the grounds of Armadale Castle haven't been told what will happen to them.
At least 450 trees are said to have been planted in the gardens in honour of lost relatives along with memorial benches and wall plaques, some of which cost families thousands of pounds.
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Joshua Vice of Clan Donald USA – which boasts more than 2000 families with Scottish ancestry – said CDLT failed to consult them and made a 'unilateral decision' to sell the castle stronghold and the 22,000-acre South Sleat estate.
He told the Sunday Mail in April: 'At no point was the radical step of a sale ever brought to light.'
Last month, the US organisation called for the sale to be put on hold to allow for 'meaningful consultation' with the wider clan as well as Sleat residents.
Clan Donald's high chief Lord Godfrey Macdonald previously said the loss of the Clan Centre at Armadale in particular would be a 'tragedy' and a 'betrayal'.
The CDLT was approached for comment. In a statement in March announcing the sale it cited the 'high-cost, low-income nature of Armadale'.
It added it planned to reform into a grant-giving charity to 'focus on our core purpose of protecting and promoting clan and indigenous Highland heritage'.
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