SCOTLAND’S largest private landowner, Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, lost three of his four young children in last weekend's Sri Lankan terror attacks.

Mr Holch Povlsen, who owns several Highlands estates, was visiting Sri Lanka on holiday with his wife Anne and their children Alma, Astrid, Agnes and Alfred. A spokesman for his wholesale fashion business Bestseller, confirmed that three of the family’s children had been killed, and requested the family’s privacy be respected.

With an estimated net worth of £6.1 billion, Mr Holch Polvsen came to Scotland's attention when he paid £7.9 million to acquire the 42,000 acre Glenfeshie estate in the Cairngorms in 2006. He has since purchased a series of other estates, with the acquisition of the Kinrara estate near Aviemore last November taking his total Scottish landholdings to more than 222,000 acres.

Through his Wildland company, he had committed to rewilding parts of the Highlands. Although the scale of his landholdings has been criticised, he has been widely welcomed across the Highlands as an investor and employer.