THE English owner of Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern's ancestral but and ben in the Highlands faces being taken to court for allowing it to fall into disrepair.
Lord Mackay takes his title from the former shepherd's cottage, Clashfearn, situated on a rocky hillside near Scourie in Sutherland.
His late father lived there and generations of the family before him. Mr Mackay later moved to Edinburgh to work on the railways. His son was born in the city where he was to become a mathematics lecturer before going into law.
A cousin, Mrs Johan Munro, 86, who lives near the cottage, said yesterday: ``He was up here with his wife visiting us in hospital about a year ago and he was sad to see the state the cottage has fallen into. He obviously has a sentimental attachment to it.''
Mrs Munro, her son, and council planners have been fighting for years for chartered surveyor and estate agent Gerald Garratt of Derby to do something about the cottage he bought as a holiday home about 15 years ago.
The cottage, with two rooms donwstairs and two attic bedrooms with skylights upstairs, had part of the roof raised by Mr Garratt and a dormer window put in.
But the work was not completed and Mr Garratt has not been seen there for about three years.
Mrs Munro said: ``The house is in an awful looking state. The slates have been stripped off and the rain must be pouring in. I don't know what the man was thinking about leaving it like this.
``The sad thing is since Lord Mackay took Clashfearn as his name a lot of people are interested in seeing the place. It would be nice if it was in a better condition.''
Sutherland planning officer David Polson described the stone-built cottage as now looking ``rather odd'' with a third of the roof higher than the rest.
He said: ``Mr Garratt has repeatedly ignored requests from us to do something about it. So he is now being served with a Waste Land notice ordering him to put the cottage back the way it was before he started his part-completed alterations.''
If this was disregarded, a report could be sent to the procurator-fiscal in Dornoch and prosecution could follow.
Mr Polson added: ``It's not because it's Lord Mackay's former family home we are taking this action. But his relatives have complained and the place is an eyesore the way it is.''
Mr Garratt, at his business in Queen Street, Derby, said: ``I don't want to say anything at the moment. I haven't been served with the notice yet. I've had problems but not to do with the cottage.''
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