THE new owners of a £25 million Scottish castle estate have hidden their identity through a legal loophole.
The Times reported that the purchaser of Dunbeath Castle, which is on the North Coast 500 (NC500) route south east of Wick, had remained anonymous thanks to the use of trusts and company filings.
Locals in the area reportedly believe that the estate, which encompasses some 28,500 acres, has been bought by a Texan billionaire, but no details have been made public.
The sprawling property also includes 21 additional houses, hunting grounds, four miles of coastline, and the Dunbeath Water river system.
Property agent Savills confirmed the sale but gave no details of the buyer.
The previous owner, Stuart Wyndham Murray Threipland, was facing “severe financial pressure” and took his own life on the day the estate went on sale, an inquest at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court was told last July.
Threipland had been found dead at Wilton Estate in Wiltshire – which is owned by his stepson, William Herbert, "the 18th Earl of Pembroke".
The Dunbeath estate was marketed worldwide, with a video produced by a New York-based agent titled “INSIDE a $32,000,000 Castle for Sale in Scotland” being viewed more than 1.3 million times.
Around one year after it went on sale in June 2023, the sale was completed.
However, filings on Scotland’s land registry show the purchaser as Dunbeath Estates Limited, The Times reported.
Dunbeath Estates Limited was incorporated on April 5, 2024, according to Companies House, and gives a registered address as “c/o Turcan Connell Princes Exchange, 1 Earl Grey Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, EH3 9EE”.
Under “persons with significant control”, Companies House lists “Tc Trustees Limited”, which is based at the same Edinburgh address.
This trust has no controlling persons listed, with Companies House stating: “The company knows or has reasonable cause to believe that there is no registrable person or registrable relevant legal entity in relation to the company.”
Land reform campaigner and former MSP Andy Wightman told The Times that people can “get around” UK transparency laws “by making the owner a UK company with a trustee company as a sole shareholder and there the trail ends cold”.
