The spectacular dunes habitat in Aberdeenshire used by Donald Trump for his £1bn golf resort is likely to lose its legal protection because his golf course has ruined the site, conservationists say.

Expert ecologists, including one who advised on the US president’s original plans for the course a decade ago, believe the sand dunes will be stripped of their status as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) by the government’s conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

The agency has confirmed that it is reviewing whether the lengthy stretch of dunes north of Aberdeen, known as Foveran Links, which is partly covered by Trump’s course, still qualifies for special conservation status.

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Jim Hansom, a specialist in coastal ecology at Glasgow University, told a BBC Scotland documentary marking the first anniversary of Trump’s election as US president that the extensive works to create the 18-hole course meant the habitat was no longer worth preserving.

“It’s been ruined from a virgin undeveloped wilderness site into something that’s relatively manicured,” Hansom said. He said he would be “absolutely surprised” if the site kept its protected status since it had lost the key features that led to it being given that protection.

Tom Dargie, an ecologist said his advice on protecting the moving dunes system was ignored by Trump, said he believed Hansom was correct in believing that the protected status would go. “From a look at satellite images, Dr Hansom is probably correct and denotification is likely.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump’s golf links near the 18th hole. The site impinges on rare sand dunes, presently with conservation status. Photograph: Michal Wachucik/AFP/Getty

These disclosures have added to mounting concerns that Trump has failed to honour the promises he made in 2008, which led to a planning inquiry over-riding the local development plan and ignoring the dune’s status as an SSSI to give the golf course the go-ahead. Normally, both the local plan and its conservation status would have prevented any significant development on the site.

SNH said a final decision on whether to delist the site would be taken next month. “As expected, there are areas where there has been some permanent habitat loss, for example, where tracks, tees, fairways and greens, have been constructed,” a spokeswoman said.

Alex Salmond, the former first minister and the local MSP for the area at the time, who vigorously backed Trump’s proposals, has admitted he now believes Trump has broken his promises to build a world-class resort on the site.

He told the documentary, entitled Donald Trump – Scotland’s President, that “the people who were putting it forward did not live up and honour the agreements they made to the Scottish people”.



Trump won approval to build on the legally protected dunes because he had pledged to create up 6,000 jobs by building a five-star hotel with 450 rooms, shops, a sports complex, timeshare flats, two golf courses and housing estates at an estimated cost of £1bn.

Salmond, Aberdeenshire councillors and powerful industrialists in the region, including the oil magnate Sir Ian Wood, believed a resort of that scale would be so valuable that it justified breaching the local development plan and ignoring the dunes’ status as an SSSI.

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To date, Trump has so far built one 18-hole course which is only open for seven months a year, a practice range and a small clubhouse with a restaurant and shop, and converted the estate’s manor house into a boutique hotel with 16 rooms. It employs the full-time equivalent of 95 people.

The Trump Organization has applied to build a second 18-hole course, which is mired in planning disputes, and has approval in principal to apply to build a housing estate if strict conditions are met for the building of a school and extra roads.

Salmond said the Trump Organization’s record so far of not delivering on its pledges should make Aberdeenshire councillors very suspicious about the latest promises.

“I think the Trump organisation will have a huge credibility problem in persuading this generation of planners and councillors in Aberdeenshire to believe the commitments they’re now making given the track record of the last 10 years,” he said.

Sarah Malone, one of the Trump Organization’s executives at the resort, has told the BBC it has so far invested £100m on the site and claimed that 150 people work at the site, many of whom are part-time and include self-employed caddies.



The official accounts for Trump International Golf Course Scotland, the company that owns the site, show it owes Trump nearly £41m and has never yet made a profit. It lost nearly £1.2m last year.

Malone insisted Trump had never promised to spend £1bn on the site overnight, but admitted that the plans for a five-star hotel had now been dropped. “It’s a long-term investment opportunity for us and that’s how Mr Trump has always approached it. So for phase one that includes the anchor, the impetus for the whole site, which is the championship golf course,” she said.

“It’s still in the early stages of its life and year on year we keep spending money, adding new services, adding new facilities, investing in our resources, investing in our people, and that is all set to continue for some time.”

Jim Gifford, the leader of Aberdeenshire council and an original supporter of Trump’s project, said the current development did not justify destroying the dunes system. “For what is only there just now, no, because the economic benefit hasn’t come through. But in the big picture that was put in front of us 10 years ago, it was worth doing.

“I think they have an obligation to bring forward what they promised, it’s – that’s the bottom line of it. The difficulty we have is we can’t force them to do that.”

* Donald Trump – Scotland’s President is broadcast on BBC One Scotland at 9pm Thursday 9 November, and on BBC iPlayer

• This article was amended on 10 November 2017. An earlier version said incorrectly that Tom Dargie had “backed Trump’s original plans” and “publicly endorsed Trump’s promises to protect the dunes system” a decade ago. Dr Dargie was employed by the Trump organisation and acted as a witness for it at a public inquiry in 2008, but had advised it to build the course further inland and always remained opposed to development of the course on dunes; at the inquiry he said such development would have significant adverse effects on habitats and plant species but argued that effective mitigation of this could be achieved. He says his advice was ignored by the Trump organisation.