Scotland has one of the most extreme concentrations of land ownership of anywhere in the western world.

Staggeringly, just 432 people own roughly half of the nation’s land. Some of these landowners have estates which have passed down their families through generations – but others in the super-wealthy elite from around the world have also been getting in on the act.

Who owns Scotland in profile – five famous super-wealthy landowners

Anders Holch Povlsen

This picture taken on August 21, 2017 shows Bestseller CEO Anders Holch Povlsen during an event in Aarhus, Denmark. - The Bestseller company confirmed on April 22, 2019, that the Holch Povlsen couple lost three of their children in the attacks in Sri Lanka.
Anders Holch Povlsen is Scotland’s richest person, with £6.73 billion in wealth (Image: TARIQ MIKKEL KHAN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

The Danish clothing billionaire is now Scotland’s biggest private landowner, with more than 12 estates across the Highlands including the stunning 42,000-acre Glenfeshie Estate in the Cairngorms.

Tycoon Povlsen, 52, worth an estimated £4.5billion thanks to his Bestseller clothes empire and his shares in the Asos online retailer, says he fell in love with Scotland as a child during fishing holidays in the 1980s.

He and his wife are estimated to own about 220,000 acres across the Highlands with his empire growing by more than a third since 2012.

The Duke of Buccleuch

Duke of Buccleuch Richard Scott
Duke of Buccleuch Richard Scott

For generations, the Duke of Buccleuch was the biggest landowner in Scotland but recently, a series of land sales has put him in second place.

The current Duke of Buccleuch Richard Scott, the 10th Duke, still owns about 200,000 acres of land, chiefly in the south of Scotland.

King Charles

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 21: King Charles III inspects Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, at the gates of Balmoral, as he takes up summer residence at Balmoral Castle on August 21, 2023 in Aberdeen, Scotland.
King Charles III inspects Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, at the gates of Balmoral in 2023. (Image: Jane Barlow – Pool/Getty Images)

The land owned by the monarch in Scotland is managed by the Crown Estate, including his world-famous residence of Balmoral.

Royal holdings include around 90,000 hectares of rural land across four estates.

Besides land, the Crown Estate also owns rights to most naturally occurring gold and silver, salmon fishing rights, and access to the seabed.

Sofie Kirk Kristiansen

Sofie Kirk Kristiansen
Sofie Kirk Kristiansen, daughter of Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and heiress to The LEGO Group fortune, pictured in Denmark. (Image: Ritzau / Alamy Stock Photo)

Another billionaire Danish family who have taken Scotland to heart are the Kirk Kristiansens – the family owns the Lego group.

Strathconon Estate in Ross-shire was bought in 1995 by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, whose grandfather Ole invented Lego.

His daughter Sofie, 48 – worth an estimated £5.5billion – is the director of the company that owns more than 80,000 acres of Scottish land.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum visiting Scotland for his summer holiday.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum visiting Scotland for his summer holiday. (Image: Instagram)

The billionaire ruler of Dubai has been busy snapping up about 63,000 acres of the Scottish countryside.

His holdings include Inverinate Estate in Wester Ross. The site already boasts a triple helipad and a 16-bed luxury hunting lodge – but he wants to build a new lodge which has been controversial with locals.

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