Transgender chatelaine sells £5m fort after bitter row
A tycoon is selling her iconic Highland castle for £5milllion because the rural area is ‘not ready’ for it to have a transgender owner, she claimed last night.
Self-styled lady of the manor Samantha Kane said she sometimes feels like she has ‘landed on Mars’ after ‘hurtful’ comments are continually made about her gender identity.
Ms Kane, who likes to be known as Lady Carbisdale, is thought to be the only person in the UK to have changed genders three times, having been born a boy.
The multi-millionaire barrister has ploughed millions of pounds of her fortune into restoring Carbisdale Castle, near Bonar Bridge, Sutherland, to its former glory after fulfilling her dream to become a ‘princess in her own fairytale’ by buying the 117-year-old property in 2022.
Samantha Kane – also known as Lady Carbisdale – sits in front of a portrait of Mary Caroline, Duchess of Sutherland, for whom her stately castle home was built
Carbisdale Castle, near Bonar Bridge, in Sutherland, is on the market for £5million
Lady Samantha Kane who has changed gender three times, pictured at Carbisdale Castle
The entrance to Carbisdale Castle, with its three-faced clock tower. It was reportedly designed that way deliberately to avoid giving ‘the time of day’ to its first owner’s husband’s son
But ‘in the best interest for its future’ she has decided to sell the imposing 19-bedroom property in the hope a new custodian can take her vision forward.
The hill-top mansion, which sits in 29 acres of ground and has its own loch, is being sold by Strutt and Parker with a price guide of £5million.
Her decision comes just weeks after she was looking for ‘women leaders and their guests’ to sign up to her exclusive Duchess’ Club, offering the first 100 members of the health and beauty club a 50 per cent discount of £5,000.
Ms Kane, 64, told the Mail: ‘It has been a labour of love mostly. But when people sit in their bedrooms writing on social media they have to realise the effect that has on some people. I really have been quite hurt by comments on my gender identity, so now I think it just needs someone, for a better word, “normal” to take over.
‘It is such a special place but I did suffer some prejudice and I think probably the Highlands is not ready for a transgender owner of the castle. It needs someone else to protect its future.
‘But I came here to a near ruined castle and have restored it to its former glory, so I’ve done the job I said I was going to do.
‘It’s really such an important landmark and my main concern is to see it preserved and to see it respected.’
Carbisdale Castle near Ardgay in the Scottish Highlands
Ms Kane behind the bar at Carbisdale Castle. She was restoring it at a reported cost of £10million and plans to welcome paying guests
Ms Kane looks out on the Highland countryside she now calls home. She sold off property in London to fund the refurbishments at Carbisdale Castle
She said there were ‘a lot of great people in the community’ and stressed the ‘actions of one or two people should not reflect the whole community’.
But she added: ‘Unfortunately if you have one or two very active and very vocal people trying to make it all personal… and comments on social media calling me a man and this and that, it really hurt me and I can do without that.’
Her decision comes after plans to preserve the castle ended in angry recriminations and a visit from the police last November when she faced the wrath of locals over her proposal to bring land surrounding the castle into public ownership for a third time, which she was later granted.
Earlier this year she also planned to lodge a court order to stop SSEN from being able to build ‘monster’ pylons close to the landmark as part of its new multi-million overhead power line from Beauly to Spittal.
But a sheriff deemed her writ ‘incompetent’ and refused to call her case.
The barrister said she now intends to return to London and ‘put my wig on and go back and attend to my clients’.
Samantha in a photoshoot at the age of 38 – prior to transitioning back to a man in 2004
Ms Kane in 2022. She now says Samantha is ‘here to stay’ after changing gender three times
Ms Kane appeared on This Morning to discuss her journey to becoming comfortable in her skin in October 2022
But she vowed: ‘I will not leave unless someone who will share my vision is going to make sure this castle will be cherished and preserved.
‘It is a sad situation. But really for me I think it should be about whatever helps the castle, it shouldn’t be what helps me personally. In the interests of the castle I think it will be best served with someone else at the helm.’
