In reply to Douglas Griffin: I'm quite happy to refer to my self as being a "White settler" in the Lochalsh area, I have been now for 30 years after moving away from my home City of Edinburgh......
The first time I became aware of the Estates being owned by None UK residence was when the Arabs bought the estate at Inverinate near Kintail. It's never been confirmed officially if it was Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum who owns the estate but as far as I know it is, why he won't confirm his ownership is a complete mystery.
During my early years living and working in the area I found a lot of the locals to be angry towards the estate management and the owners. After hearing some of the complaints my sympathy grow for the locals and this is why...
The owners had very little respect for the local culture and "Freedom to roam" laws, they planned and began to build a big fence around the estate; they employed as a game keeper an X copper from down south who had been dismissed from the force, the man was an idiot!;
Some of the locals had been classed as poachers and they were targeted by the estate management, who in turn failed to recognise that these people had been at it for there whole lives and so had there fathers and Grandfathers.
As a result, the most notorious of these characters one Tommy "Mahog" MacKenzie, wrote a poem about the game Keeper and the estate owners, which was then published in the Scotsman Newspaper. Tommy was a local Bard whose family had worked and poached on these lands for centuries.
Due to the poem being written and published combined with local resentment, the estate decided it was all out war, making it even harder for the locals to carry out there tradition, cutting down the tree along the banks of one river and recruiting in further assistance to make it difficult for the locals to poach.
Eventually it became impossible for the locals to win and sadly Tommy "Mahog" Mackenzie died....some considered his death to be suspicious.
Tommy's wake was held at Kintail lodge, a brilliant send off with good local music and a real eye opener for a white settler like me....As I was a bit drunk, I stood outside to get some fresh air, feeling quite emotional as what appeared to be a boat was being launched out to sea and set ablaze, I think Tommy's ashes were on the boat but right now I can't confirm that.
Away across the loch, in front of the lodge at Inverinate, was the Arabs big expensive Boat...being a bit pished, I could personally see it but it was there at that time....
....little did we know at that time, two young lads were rowing out to the Arabs boat armed with a chainsaw, they boarded the boat and proceeded to sink it..!
The lads were jailed for their act but the statement that they made brought slightly more positive changes to the estate, the Arabs invested more cash in the area and a load of Arab women even bought loads of toys from the toy shop in Kyle and handed them out to the local kids!
The game keeper was no more either.....
A lot of the locals in that area are Nationalists like myself, proud and rightly very protective of their culture, language, music, Bards and history and this I respect immensely.
I'm sick of hearing Scottish nationalism associated with Alex Salmond at every opportunity by some people, personally I don't mind the man, but I doubt I'll vote for him when Scotland "Does" become independent.
For all you haters of Alex Salmond, he has been mentioned in this wee article about the game keeper in Inverinate being accused of killing birds of prey....... But he's not the only MP who has been guilty of this, that is if he did have an influence over the trial.
http://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/tag/inverinate-estate/