Ninian Brodie, the 25th Brodie of Brodie, who became embroiled in a bitter family dispute over the sale of the ancestral home, has died, aged 90.

The clan chief died in an Elgin nursing home not far from the sixteenth-century Brodie Castle which is at the centre of the feud.

Ninian Brodie sold the family seat and its 175-acre estate to the National Trust for Scotland in 1978 for (pounds) 130,000 but his three grandchildren launched a legal action claiming that the castle was rightfully theirs and was sold too cheaply. The row came to a head after Alexander, the eldest grandchild, who was temporarily staying with his grandfather in 1998, was forcibly evicted from the castle by police and took refuge in the family graveyard for two days.

Alexander Brodie of Brodie, his brother Edward-Benedict, and sister Phaedra, who all live in France, took their case to have the sale revoked to the Court of Session in Edinburgh last year. Finding against the grandchildren, Lady Smith said she could find no reason to set aside the sale.

Until recently Ninian Brodie lived in a small flat within the castle as part of the deal, but this will now be turned over to the trust.

His son, Alastair, who now inherits the title of the 26th Brodie of Brodie, is a businessman in the south of England and has expressed no interest in returning.

Ninian Brodie was born at Brodie Castle, the third and youngest of three boys,

however a series of twists of fate led him to assume the mantle of Brodie of Brodie.

His eldest brother, David, had died from complications following diphtheria and Ninian grew up in the company of his elder brother, Michael. After education at Eton and a short spell in Australia, he began an intensive business course in London to prepare him for a life in business, but neither he nor Michael, who was reading for the bar, were interested in these prospective careers and instead they both enrolled at the Webber Douglas stage school for a two-year training course for the theatre.

On completing his training at the school, Ninian's first acting job was with the Oxford Repertory Company. After gaining experience there and taking small parts in various repertory companies, including working in the West End, he went to Perth Repertory Company and stayed there for some time. He was at Perth when Michael, aged 28, was killed in a road accident in 1937, leaving Ninian as the only surviving son and thus heir to one of Scotland's oldest family titles.

During his time at Perth Repertory, Ninian met his future wife, Helena Budgeon, a descendant of the great actress Sarah Siddons.

The couple were married in 1939 at Holy Trinity church in Marylebone, with actor Stewart Granger as best man. Shortly afterwards, Ninian joined the Royal Artillery, and having spent some time in London on anti-aircraft duties, he went to North Africa to instruct troops on the use of artillery in battle.

During his time in North Africa, in 1943, his father died and he became 25th Brodie of Brodie. In the same year his twin children, Alastair and Juliet, were born, although he did not see them until after his return from North Africa when there were 15 months old.

After the war Ninian continued his career as an actor for a short time, at Worthing and then Birmingham, but the uncertainties of an actor's life, coupled with a need to help his mother in running the Brodie estate, persuaded him to give up the stage and return with his family to Brodie.

The remainder of his life has been spent at Brodie, which he inherited on the death of his mother in 1956.

He maintained a connection with the theatre by mounting plays and later through his connection with the Nairn Performing Arts Guild.

The difficulties of maintaining Brodie Castle put great strain on the family's finances, and faced with the prospect of having to sell off the greater part of the castle's contents, Ninian and his wife decided that the National Trust for Scotland might be an avenue for keeping the castle and its contents intact.

Helena died in 1973 of leukaemia, but by then negotiations for the future of the castle and contents were in hand. These were completed in 1978, Brodie Castle was transferred by the Secretary of State for Scotland to the National Trust for Scotland in 1979 and the work of restoration was begun. Since the castle opened its doors to visitors for the first time in 1980, Ninian played a major part in the life of the castle, acting as a guide to his ancestral home and delighting thousands of visitors.

Ninian Brodie of Brodie; born June 12, 1912, died March 3, 2003.