Donald Trump: Tycoon arrives in Scotland for golf course battle

DONALD Trump admitted today that he would probably have walked away from his planned £1 billion golf resort if his mother had not been from Scotland.

The billionaire US property tycoon spoke after a brief visit to his late mother's former house on Stornoway in the Isle of Lewis.

He was asked if he would have given up on his plans for the Aberdeenshire resort after they were initially rejected by the council had his mother not been from Scotland.

He said: "I think probably I would have, yes.

"It is really easy to find a nice piece of land to do something nice on.

"But Scotland is special and I wanted to do something special for my mother."

Mr Trump, who appeared at the press conference with his elder sister, New York judge Maryanne Trump Barry, said he felt Scottish.

He said: "I don't want you to ask me to define what that means but I felt that strongly from my mother.

"I have always felt very good about Scotland and about this area of Scotland."

Mr Trump, who met relatives and council officials, spoke to journalists for about 15 minutes before jetting into Aberdeen where he is due to give evidence tomorrow at the inquiry into his proposed development.

He wants to build a £1 billion resort at Menie Estate Aberdeenshire featuring two championship golf courses, a five-star hotel and hundreds of houses.

The public local inquiry was ordered by Scottish ministers after Aberdeenshire Council rejected the plans last year.

Environmental groups are critical of the proposals suggesting that delicate sand dune systems would be destroyed.

But many leading business figures have voiced their support for Mr Trump's plans.

Mr Trump revealed he had previously visited the house as a boy but had been too busy to return until now.

He denied that the visit had been made to publicise his plans.

He said: "I have not been back since, because I have been so busy having so much fun in New York and I'm just happy to be here.

"You do reach a certain point in life where you think about where you came from, where your parents are from, and in this case I've been waiting to do this for years."

Although unwilling to talk about tomorrow's inquiry in detail, he said: "If with all the popularity it has – not just from the people but from politicians – it does not get accepted, it would be a very bad signal to the world in terms of investing in Scotland."

He suggested the cost of building the resort would have risen significantly while his application has been delayed but stressed that he had no need to rely on banks.

His sister, who has regularly visited Stornoway, said of Mr Trump: "This is a man I revered. He is a nice guy actually, very funny, and my mom would have been very proud to see him here."

Calum Murray, 60, Mr Trump's first cousin, met the tycoon today and showed him around.

Mr Murray admitted the visit was fleeting but said he hoped Mr Trump would "have more time on his next visit".

Mary MacLeod Trump, a philanthropist who supported a number of charities near her New York home and elsewhere, died in August 2000 at the age of 88.

She was born Mary MacLeod on the Isle of Lewis in 1912 and met Fred C Trump on a visit to New York in the 1930s.

They married in 1936 and Mr Trump, who died in 1999, went on to become one of New York's biggest developers.

The public local inquiry is to be held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre and is expected to last three to four weeks.