A member of one of Scotland's most ardent Jacobite families has bought a clifftop castle and estate in the North of Scotland.

Stuart Wyndham Murray Threipland, a descendant of Bonnie Prince Charlie's personal physician, is now the owner of the spectacular 30,000 acre Dunbeath Estate in Caithness and its dramatic medieval castle.

The estate was put on the market three years ago for #3m by the ageing American millionaire Stanton Avery, who made a fortune from sticky labels.

Mr Murray Threipland, 49, has owned Strathmore Lodge in Caithness for 25 years and runs an engineering firm in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

He is married with three children and intends to make Dunbeath Castle his permanent home.

He said: ''I intend to run the estate as well as I humanly can. I am very proud to have purchased Dunbeath because my family has links with the North of Scotland going back centuries.''

Mr Murray Threipland, who has the Latin nickname Tertius because he is a third son, added: ''The estate will be run in a traditional way which I hope will ensure that the jobs of all existing employees are secure.''

Four years ago Mr Murray Threipland's half-brother Mark raised nearly #1.4m with the sale of hundreds of Jacobite heirlooms handed down through his family, including letters, a silver dog collar bearing an inscription from the Young Pretender, which went for #41,000, and a punchbowl with a portrait of the

prince which fetched #25,300.

The Murray Threiplands were one of the Stuart royal family's strongest sympathisers. The Old Pretender stayed at their ancestral home, Fingask Castle, in Perthshire, during his 1715 uprising and presented the family with several gifts to show his gratitude.

Stuart Murray Threipland, who studied medicine at Edinburgh University, was Bonnie Prince Charlie's doctor during the 1745 uprising and was given more presents by the prince. Many of these were included in the three-day sale at Fingask Castle.

Dunbeath Castle was a stronghold of the Sinclair family for around 500 years until it was sold in 1945. Mr Avery bought it in 1977.