Scotland's Scandinavian landowners, including the Lego family, and why they settled in the Highlands

With fortunes made from Lego, packaging, fashion and construction, some of Scandinavia’s most wealthy figures and families have long had a stake in Scotland.

Tens of thousands of hectares of the Highlands are owned by those who hail from Scandinavia, with shooting, nature restoration and hospitality among the enterprises pursued on Scottish soil by the Norse settlers.

Strathconon Estate in Ross-shire was bought in 1995 by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, whose grandfather invented Lego, with the estate expanding under the Dane’s watch. Now, his daughter Sofie, 47, is the director of the company that owns some 33,500 hectares. Her personal fortune is estimated at $6.96 billion [£5.46bn].

From top left : Lisbet Rausing of Corrour Estate; Sofie Kirk Kristiansen of Strathconon Estate and Anders Holch Povlsen, Scotland's largest landowner who owns 13 estates across Sutherland, Cairngorms and Lochaber. PIC: You Tube/Getty/Creative Commons.

Ms Kristiansen came on board in 2023 when Strathconon Estates Limited was formed. The previous owner was the family investment vehicle Kirkbi, which owns Merlin Entertainments Group and operates theme parks including Legoland and Alton Towers.

Ms Kristiansen aims to shift Strathconon from a “classic Highland shooting estate” to a “wholehearted nature restoration project”. Applications to Scottish Forestry show the estate, which also takes in neighbouring Scardroy and Ledgowan, is felling old Sitka spruce plantations and replacing them with native woodland over 300 hectares.

This eye on nature restoration is also held by Lisbet Rausing, a Swedish academic and heiress to the Tetrapak packaging fortune whose family bought Corrour estate close to Fort William in 1995.

Corrour, which spans 23,000 hectares, is now the biggest estate in new consortium Loch Abar Mor, which brings together a number of landowners to purse nature restoration across traditional estate boundaries at scale.

Ms Rausing, in her book Corrour, A History of a Sporting Estate, described the location as her “family’s greatest joy”. She wrote of a “magical summer” riding across the Highlands in the 1980s and the Norse heritage of Scotland offering a feeling of home.

Ms Rausing wrote: "The West Coast place names reminded us that these were lands our ancestors had settled. The name of Torlundy, outside of Fort William, echoes Sweden’s many Torlunda, and Lochaber too once had sacrificial groves where Tor, the Norse god of war and thunder, was worshipped. Somerled, the 12th-century king of the Kingdom of the Hebrides, was descended from Norsemen and was the ancestor of the Five Chiefs of Clan Donald. He is now known to have some half a million patrilineal descendants.

"If you are a MacAlister, a MacDonald or a MacDougall, the chances are that through your forefather Somerled, you have Norwegian ancestry. No wonder Nordic people feel at home in Scotland."

Meanwhile, Anders Holch Povlsen is Scotland's largest landowner, with the Dane again named as the richest man in Scotland last week. He owns 90,000 hectares across 13 estates in Sutherland, Cairngorms and Lochaber, with deer stalking, tourism and hospitality among his enterprises here. Mr Povlsen, who includes the former Jenners building in his portfolio, owns fashion brand Bestseller and significant stakes in Asos, Zalando and Klarna.

Mr Povlsen first visited the Highlands in the 1980s where he spent a summer fly fishing with his younger brother Niels.

Buying land in Scotland has long been regarded as a safe investment given the relative stability of the country, with values significantly rising given the potential to generate income over large areas from tree planting and peatland restoration.

Historically there have been no land ownership restrictions in Scotland, unlike countries such as France, Finland, Switzerland and New Zealand. The new Land Reform Bill seeks to sets out the rights and responsibilities of large scale landowners who hold more than 3,000 acres.

Also from Denmark, where citizens pay tax on land held overseas, is the Olesen family, who own the Glenmoriston Estate near Loch Ness. The family runs construction and real estate group NRE, which operates across Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Bo Anders Olesen and his two sons are listed as directors of the company, which owns the 8,000 hectare estate.