Highland Titles, based in the Channel Islands, offers plots of land measuring a square foot on a 750-acre area known as the Keil estate, and tells buyers that owning the land allows them to adopt the title Laird, Lord or Lady of Glencoe.
But critics say the titles are meaningless and that the land itself is nowhere near the famous glen. The Keil estate is 16 miles west of Glencoe on a spit of land that juts into Loch Linnhe.
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One source familiar with the situation said: “The land is nowhere near Glencoe. If you buy into the theory that this company is selling plots to put money back into the environment, so be it. But ‘caveat emptor’ – buyers beware.”
The titles have also brought bemusement in the area itself. “A lot of people are unhappy about it in the local community,” said a Glencoe local who declined to be named. “The name of Glencoe is being exploited. A lot of people over the years have tried to exploit it and this is yet another example. They’ve called the wood “Glencoe Wood” but why would it be called that when it’s not even in Glencoe?”
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/30-title-to-lord-it-over-glencoe-1-2125806 WARNINGS from Forestry Commission Scotland that owners of woodland face £5,000 fines if they fail to tackle diseased ash trees present a new problem for the already questionable business of selling tiny parcels of land and telling punters that purchase entitles them to call themselves Laird or Lady.
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Highland Titles, which is registered in, er, Guernsey and run by self-styled “philanthropist, conservationist, biologist” Peter Bevis, advertises that its woods consist of “native Scottish broadleaf, either oak, ash, rowan, hazel…” A Forestry Commission Scotland spokesman tells the Eye that statutory plant health notices could be served on either the owner or manager of woodland, which would be decided on a case by case basis. Fines are imposed for failure to comply.
Lairdship companies could of course reassure customers that there is no such risk by admitting that since souvenir plots are not registered in the Land Register, buyers don’t actually own the land any more than they do the title (as Registers of Scotland warned in a law journal article earlier this year). But then, what could they claim to be selling?"
http://lochaberhighlandestate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/highland-titles-glencoe-estates-in.htmlWhen this was pointed out, Highland Titles changed their list of the trees on the land from having both 'ash' and 'rowan' to just 'mountain ash (rowan)'. That doesn't mean the ash trees were cut down, of course, so if you do own a plot with one on, you're liable.
All in all, I have my doubts about a company run in the Channel Islands (not actually part of the United Kingdom or EU) selling 'plots' which can't be officially registered, at the other end of the British Isles. You're basically sending money to a guy who says "trust me, I'm an ecologist, I'll look after this land".
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