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A company which was previously linked to a Channel Island based organisation which offers people a chance to ‘become a Lord or Lady of the Glen’ by buying a plot of land in Scotland has gone into liquidation.
Wildcat Haven Enterprises has appointed Simply Corporate as liquidators three years after it lost a defamation case against a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).
In 2015, MSP Andy Wightman published a blog on Wildcat Haven Enterprises and his concerns with its operation.
Wildcat Haven Enterprises is a community interest company (CIC) founded by an English biologist called Paul O’Donoghue. Its goal was to restore wildcat and lynx populations in Scotland.
It used to be linked to the Channel Island based charity Highland Titles Charitable Trust for Scotland, which owns Highland Titles Ltd. In its incorporation document on the UK Government website Wildcat Haven names Highland Titles Charitable Trust for Scotland as the recipient of any ‘residual assets’ if the company was to ever go into liquidation.
It's understood that this has since been changed and the Highland Trust is no longer linked in anyway with Wildcat Haven.
After Mr Wightman published his blog highlighting concerns he had with Wildcat Haven starting to sell plots of land for conservation, Wildcat Haven sued him for defamation.
Mr O’Donoghue said Mr Wightman’s claims had seen him lose business. However, the presiding Judge in the case, Lord Clark, ruled that his claims weren’t defamatory.
While he agreed that some of the claims were incorrect, they couldn’t be considered defamatory because he hadn’t seen any proof of losses.
“Turning to losses said to arise from loss of 54 sales, there was simply no proper basis in the evidence from which any such loss could be established,” he said.
“The evidence about any actual decline in sales was at best unclear (partly because in December 2015, after blog 1, the pursuer apparently enjoyed its highest ever sales) and in any event there was simply nothing to show the net effect in monetary terms, having regard to costs and expenses, of the decline in sales.”
The attempt to sue Mr Wightman proved unsuccessful and case was closed in 2020. The most recent development has been Wildcat Haven Enterprise appointing a voluntary liquidator as of 18 August 2023.
Highland Titles was founded in Alderney in 2006. The ownership of the company was subsequently transferred to Highland Titles Charitable Trust for Scotland, which is a charity registered in Guernsey.
The company sells 'souvenir' plots of land to people with the intention of making those people Lairds or Ladys. The money is then used to support Scottish conservation by re-wilding certain areas. The scheme has been incredibly popular and even featured in the goody-bags at the Oscars in 2022.
While the company claims you become a 'Lord or Lady of the Glen' on its website, it's qualified by a disclaimer that states:
"You will be addressed by your choice of Laird, Lord or Lady of the Glen by us and within our 300,000+ strong community. Please note you cannot buy a noble title. This is for enjoyment purposes only."
In an article titled 'The dark side of 'fake' Scottish titles' published by EuroNews it was reported that Highland Titles gifted land to Wildcat Haven so the latter could start selling souvenir-plots in a similar vein to Highland Titles.
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