Scotland’s sector regulator is investigating a charity after it decided to sell a clan’s estate and land for an estimated almost £7m.
OSCR said it is investigating the Clan Donald Lands Trust (CDLT), based on the Isle of Skye’s Sleat peninsula, after it put Armadale Castle and its 20,000-acre estate on the market.
In March, the charity announced it would make the sale due to financial challenges and has reportedly so far received offers totalling up to £6.8m.
The regulator has now confirmed it contacted the charity after it received concerns about the proposed sale from members of the public.
OSCR said in a statement: “OSCR has received a number of concerns from the public about the Clan Donald Lands Trust.
“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.
“We will not reach a position to decide whether further regulatory action is necessary until we are satisfied that we have established the facts of the case.”
Switch to grantmaking
CDLT said it intended to become a grantmaking body based somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, with the specific location yet to be confirmed.
In a statement on its website, it said the decision was made to put the castle and its estate on the market due to “the urgent need to realign the trust’s resources with its core charitable objectives and to secure a sustainable future for our mission”.
“For many years, the trust has been open about the significant financial challenges facing our charity,” it said.
“The Armadale visitor centre has never been financially self-sustaining year-round, and its continued operation has relied on long-term dependence on a single major grant funder.”
It added that OSCR had been engaged in the process and that trustees had “acted fully within their powers in line with legal advice, following all required protocols, and have taken these decisions in what they believe to be the best interests of the charity”.
“There has been considerable interest in both estates, and a number of serious parties are now well advanced in their due diligence,” it said.
“The trustees remain hopeful that offers will be forthcoming which enable Armadale to continue as a whole.”
CDLT has overseen the Clan Donald’s lands on the Isle of Skye since the 1970s to “promote and preserve the history and heritage of Clan Donald”.
It owns the 40-acre Armadale Castle and gardens and the site of the Clan Donald heritage museum.
The four trustees are London businessman Ranald Macdonald, owner of the Boisdale restaurants, Yorkshire-based landowner Ian MacDonald of Sleat, US-based retired major Bruce MacDonald, and Diane Carey-Schmitz.
