A millionaire property tycoon given a police warning after a row with locals has vowed to take legal action against anyone who opposes her bid to turn a Highland castle into a playground for the world’s rich.
Samantha Kane, believed to be the only person in the UK to have changed gender three times, claimed she has faced discrimination and racism from locals intent on stopping her project. Kane bought Carbisdale Castle in Sutherland for £1million and plans to sell memberships to a select group of wealthy tourists from the US and Middle East to use it as a luxury retreat.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail, the 63-year-old London barrister said she is a “woman of the people” and wants locals to use the castle’s luxury spa and facilities – but only for 25 days a year.
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She said: “Unfortunately there are many stories about my three gender changes so it’s made me more of an outsider in a remote part of the Highlands – as if I’m somebody who’s just landed from Mars. I find people have an element of mistrust of an outsider or that ‘she’s different from us’.
“This is not everyone but there are half a dozen people who have approached me with some menace and communication which I find racist and related to hate but they are influencing friends and others.”
Since buying the historic site in August, the Iraq-born lawyer has styled herself 'Lady Carbisdale' and said she will spend £20million restoring the 118-year-old former youth hostel before it opens as a members-only hotel in March. But she has faced backlash from some in the community and accusations she has not paid a contractor for doing work.
Tensions in the remote community escalated last week when Kane was issued with a police warning after members of the Ardgay and District community council voted against her third bid to buy a plot of forestry land and the meeting descended into chaos.
Police Scotland said: “On the evening of Thursday, November 23, police were called to a report of a disturbance in the Carron Place area of Ardgay. Suitable advice was provided and one woman was issued with a Recorded Police Warning following an earlier
disturbance on Tuesday, November 21.”
Asked about her police warning, Kane said: “Well, this is an overreaction. I think I deserve respect for what I’m doing.” Meanwhile, a post on Kane’s Facebook page offering a signed painting in exchange for £450 sponsorship for repairs was deleted less than 24 hours later. Kane blamed an employee and said she was “not interested in such small sums”.
Kane said: “We have people spreading rumours. There is only one contractor I’ve had a dispute with. One company didn’t do the work properly. We’ve withheld payment lawfully from them.”
Asked if she was presenting herself as a community saviour, Kane said the area did need to be saved. She compared her project to that of her friend the late Mohamed Al-Fayed.The ex-Harrods owner bought derelict Balnagown Castle in Easter Ross in 1972 and transformed it into a family home.
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Kane said: “I am a woman of the people. The difference here is I am not owning thousands of acres of land. This is about saving Carbisdale Castle and the only people who don’t agree with that have got all the facts wrong. There’s not many youth left and there’s no jobs. I don’t agree with ‘we don’t want to be saved’ – I think they do.”
The row over the land has been rumbling on for months but Kane insists she will not hesitate to employ “legal mechanisms” to resolve the dispute.
She said: “There are legal mechanisms which could force the purchase of this land. This land belongs to the castle and has no economic benefit to the taxpayer. I very much doubt whether these half a dozen people can stop something that’s in the national interest.”
A business plan for the castle shows Kane is expecting to make £1million in membership fees in the first year – charging 100 people £10,000. By year five, the plan is to make the castle “one of the most prestigious private members’ clubs in the world” and make £2.9million in membership fees alone.
She said some of the profit will be put into a Community Interest Company to issue grants to local projects via the Lady Carbisdale Trust. One local said the trust was about “self-promotion of the self-appointed lady” and added: “She blocks people in passing places to hound them to support her attempts to take over public land. Surely she was aware that the castle has very little ground.”
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Betty Wright, former chairwoman of Ardgay Community Council, said: “The land is public and it was felt it was not appropriate to sell it. I think everyone here is just fed up with this whole issue.”
Forestry and Land Scotland said: “A significant degree of community consultation has been carried out following the approach to us to purchase land. We are dealing with this request as we would any other and are seeking advice on whether or not a potential sale meets the relevant criteria outlined in the Public Finance Manual.”
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