As a 最高の-rich 大君 with a VERY chequered past, his Highland pile was once a 聖域. So why is he now at war with 隣人s (and the MOD) over his 議論の的になる 勝利，勝つd farm 計画（する）s?

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There was a time when Christopher Moran visited his Scottish 広い地所 most 週末s. This scenic tranche of upland Banffshire was his 'sanity', the multi-millionaire financier used to say.

'I come here for the 孤独. In London I can work 24 hours a day. But here, I unwind.'

When he and his then wife Helen arrived at Aberdeen Airport on Friday nights, an 広い地所 労働者 would be there to 素早い行動 them into the 山のふもとの丘s of the Grampian mountains, where the 17-bedroom Cabrach 宿泊する を待つd.

There he would change into his made-to-order 広い地所 tweed 加える fours.

A 熱烈な furniture collector, the laird filled his Scottish bolthole with antique marvels and regaled guests with their histories. 支援する in 1992, the only 失望 at Cabrach 宿泊する was his office ? empty but for a telephone. 

The '権利' desk for it 簡単に hadn't come along yet, he would explain. 'I don't believe in 妥協.'

More than three １０年間s on, life is markedly different on the 48,000-acre 広い地所 Mr Moran acquired in two 処理／取引s in the late 1970s and 早期に 1980s.

The 75-year-old is today 見解（をとる）d as an absentee landlord. There is, in fairness, muc h taking up his attention in London, not least his 20-month-old daughter Iva, by 現在の partner Emily Rae.

A more たびたび（訪れる） presence in the Cabrach is son Jamie Moran, 36, and the 人物／姿／数字 many in the community 言及する to as his 'minder'. Although he is not always introduced at 会合s with 隣人s, it turns out this is Sir Hugh Orde, 65, the former 長，指導者 constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

'I can't やめる 包む my 長，率いる around the career trajectory there,' says one 地元の ? but, as we shall see, the 財政／金融 whizz and the ex-police 長，指導者 go 支援する some years.

The most obvious change on the 広い地所 is to the landscape itself. Almost 60 turbines form the Dorenell 勝利，勝つd farm whose 操作者s 支払う／賃金 rent 概算の at more than £1million a year to the landowner.

Now, to the horror of many in the community, Mr Moran is looking to 延長する his 勝利，勝つd 利益／興味s. The more 前進するd 計画（する）s are for 22 turbines 手段ing up to 650ft on his land.

They are 述べるd as 段階 three of the Clashindarroch 勝利，勝つd farm, whose other two 段階s ? one yet to be built ? are on 隣接する 所有物／資産／財産.

'範囲ing' is also taking place for an 拡張 to Dorenell 勝利，勝つd farm, with a formal planning 使用／適用 推定する／予想するd soon.

If everything planned for the Cabrach is 認可するd, it would turn this hitherto unspoiled patch of upland Scotland into what 地元のs call 'the UK's largest onshore 勝利，勝つd park'.

Members of the sparsely 居住させるd community scarcely dare to 熟視する／熟考する that eventuality. They say the Cabrach ? an area 法外なd in whisky history ? had already reached 'saturation point' with 巨大（な） turbines.

And yet they are acutely aware of the enthusiasm with which the Scottish 政府 waves through 勝利，勝つd farms.

All of which h as brought a 際立った froideur to the place Mr Moran once 見解（をとる）d as his 安全な 港／避難所. Ever since his 広い地所

got into the renewable energy 商売／仕事, he has been labelled a '勝利，勝つd farm vulture', pocketing the lucrative rents at the expense of his 隣人s and the landscape. But then, not everything, perhaps, has changed since Mr Moran's 早期に days of 広い地所 所有権.

Now reckoned to be 価値（がある） some £400million, the colourful laird still shows no 調印するs of believing in 妥協.

The history of his 任期 in this part of North-East Scotland is a long and chequered one, but it was in his native London that he first made headlines.

Born in modest circumstances in the north of the city, he was by the age of 12 a 財政上の Times reader and a natural entrepreneur.

He 開始する，打ち上げるd his first company in his teens and, when it floated on the 在庫／株 交流 a few years later, he was 始める，決める up for life.

He became a 仲買人 for Lloyd's ? a 同時代の remembered him as 'probably the best young brain' they had.

But it is for a いっそう少なく enviable distinction that he is 主として 公式文書，認めるd: Mr Moran was the first Lloyd's 仲買人 to be expelled in 300 years for 'discreditable 行為／行う'.

His 不名誉 even made it into the New York Times.

A few years later he was 非難d by the 在庫／株 交流 会議 and, in 1992, he was 罰金d $2million in th e US for insider 取引，協定ing. And yet, it seemed, his ability to make money remained unerring. By the 1990s, Mr Moran was a 正規の／正選手 fixture in the Sunday Times Rich 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） ? indeed he has been known to complain to the compilers that they have undervalued his wealth.

'Astronomically 豊富な' is how he is on 記録，記録的な／記録する as 述べるing it.

His London 演説（する）／住所 since the 早期に 1990s is the 15th century Crosby Hall in Chelsea, on the bank of the Thames. The みごたえのある Tudor pile ? he is 概算の to have spent up to £40m renovating it ? was once home to King Richard III and Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII's Lord （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長.

Given the 天文学の sums he was spending in London, the Cabrach 広い地所 and the 隣人ing Glenfiddich deer forest, which he bought for £1million in 1982, may have seemed small beer in comparison.

Yet, long before 勝利，勝つd turbines put him at 半端物s with his Scottish 隣人s, 緊張s had been simmering.

There was the 列／漕ぐ／騒動 in the late 1990s over a community 企て，努力，提案 to 延長する the graveyard at Cabrach Parish Church, which would have meant eating into a third of an acre of Mr Moran's land. He 辞退するd to sell it at any price ? not even £1million, he said ? and stood 会社／堅い even when 地元の 議員s 脅すd to make a compulsory 購入（する）.

His mother Iva was buried in the graveyard, which was now running out of lairs, but the 拡張 would 'just look awful,' he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd. It was never built.

The 広い地所 was dogged with lurid headlines 伴う／関わるing 野性生物 罪，犯罪s in the 1990s. The worst year was 1998, said the RSPB, when almost a third of the 報告（する）／憶測d 出来事/事件s of bird 毒（薬）ing in Scotland occurred on the Cabrach 広い地所.

It said ten rabbits, six pigeons, six grouse and two hares were laced with a lethal pesticide and left out on the hill as bait for birds of prey .

によれば the charity, a peregrine falcon, two buzzards, a crow, a gull and a stoat were 毒（薬）d as a result ? and they 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd countless others 苦しむd the same 運命／宿命.

'This 代表するs by far the worst group of 出来事/事件s on a 選び出す／独身 広い地所 ever 記録，記録的な／記録するd,' （人命などを）奪う，主張するd the RSPB, but 証明するing which individual did it was nearly impossible. That said, the 広い地所's 長，率いる gamekeeper at the time, Stanley Gordon, was 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of having a dead peregrine in his Land Rover. It had been 毒（薬）d.

Little wonder, perhaps, that Mr Moran's enthusiastic support for the 保守的な Party has long excited nervousness. As 総理大臣, John Major is believed to have rebuffed an 申し込む／申し出 of a 寄付. It is understood a 新たにするd 申し込む／申し出 was 拒絶するd under Iain Duncan Smith's leadership too.

When David Cameron became leader, Mr Moran was 広範囲にわたって 報告（する）／憶測d to be one of the 寄贈者s to whom the party returned a total of £5million to 妨げる their 身元s 存在 明らかにする／漏らすd under a 法律 change about 寄付s.

It was in 2009 that the 計画（する） to build 59 turbines on his 広い地所 first surfaced ? along with 約束s from the developer Infinergy of the 相当な 利益s such a 施設 would bring to the community. Fifteen years on, many 地元のs struggle to identify what they are.

The then director of Ramblers Scotland, Dave Morris, was an 早期に critic. 'Christopher Moran and 勝利，勝つd farms deserve each other,' he said at the time.

'Too many landowners have their noses 深い into the renewables 気圧の谷 and their backsides pointing に向かって Scotland's wild and magnificent scenery.'

Mr Moran remained undeterred. His former wife Helen once said of him: 'When he wants something he will stop at nothing to get it.

'He wants people to remember what he has 達成するd and he's very persuasive ? やめる ruthless, really.'

The 勝利，勝つd farm went up and the rent rolled in.

As 憤慨 grew in his corner of Scotland, the laird soon 設立する himself 取引，協定ing with a more 圧力（をかける）ing PR 問題／発行する 負かす／撃墜する south. A newspaper 調査 明らかにする／漏らすd that Chelsea Cloisters, a 抱擁する apartment 封鎖する he owned, was a hotbed of 売春.

So rife with 副／悪徳行為 was the 670-flat コンビナート／複合体 that it earned the 愛称 Ten 床に打ち倒すs of Whores. Mr Moran, who said he knew nothing about the 違法な activity, 開始する，打ち上げるd a clean-up 操作／手術, 報道によれば 任命するing his friend Sir Hugh Orde to 操る the 仕事.

Certainly it was in the wake of the スキャンダル that the former police 長，指導者 became a director of Realreed ? the company which runs the serviced apartments ? in April 2019.

One source said: 'Sir Hugh was brought in to clean up the Cloisters, and was able to identify a number of sex 労働者s who were subsequently 除去するd.'

Five years later, Northern Ireland's erstwhile most 上級の policeman stalks the uplands of Banffshire with Mr Moran Jnr ? the exact dynamic of their 共同 a mystery to most 地元のs they 会合，会う as they roll out their 勝利，勝つd farm 拡張 計画（する）s.

It is the younger man who does the talking, they say.

'I think he's there to keep a の近くに 扱う on what's 存在 said and what's not 存在 said and everything in between,' 投機・賭けるs one.

Another, Colin Mackenzie, who owns a farm steading and holiday lets の近くに to the 広い地所, says he has never spoken to the laird and rarely seen him.

He 述べるs the new wave of turbines spearheaded by the 広い地所 as a '国家の 災害' which would destroy not only landscape but wipe out 遺産. His closest 接触する with Mr Moran was on the dance 床に打ち倒す at the 広い地所's 年次の ceilidh a few years 支援する.

The event was mothballed during the Covid years but was then 生き返らせるd last year when, to their surprise, some members of the community surrounding the 広い地所 received 招待s.

Perhaps, they thought, this would be an 適切な時期 to build 橋（渡しをする）s.

And yet, the Mail understands, after 答える／応じるing that they would like to …に出席する and 詳細（に述べる）ing 加える ones and dietary 必要物／必要条件s, a number received emails 説 they had been 招待するd in error.

Patti Nelson, chairman of the Cabrach Community 協会, said the area had 'certainly been dealt a difficult 手渡す across the last 40 years'.

She 追加するd: '問題／発行するs associated with landowners and landownership in the Cabrach are of course 極度の慎重さを要する 事柄s, as we are all part of the one community.

'But the Cabrach 直面するs an 不公平な, 不均衡d 状況／情勢 which is genuinely 脅すing the ability of individuals and families to live in the area. And now absentee landowners look to grossly 利益（をあげる）, at the 構成要素 expense of the 地元の community. The 平行の to a modern-day Highland 通関手続き／一掃 is not unfounded.

'We implore Scottish 政府 大臣s to tune into what's happening in the Cabrach.'

For Jonathan Christie, 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある of the Cabrach 信用 charity, the prospect of an area 熟した for 極度の慎重さを要する regeneration 存在 forested over with turbines is an appalling one.

The 信用's headline 事業／計画（する） is a one-of-a-肉親，親類d, community-owned 選び出す／独身 malt Scotch whisky distillery, scheduled to open later this summer. It will create 決定的な 地元の 雇用, 行為／法令／行動する as a 訪問者 目的地 and direct 利益（をあげる）s into the Cabr ach.

He told the Mail: 'This is a community with the 可能性のある of becoming an exemplar for 田舎の regeneration in 活動／戦闘. The 代案／選択肢 creates the 激烈な／緊急の 危険 of becoming the 事例／患者 熟考する／考慮する for what happens when Scottish 政府 政策 for a Just 移行 goes wrong.

'The Cabrach community has 天候d a difficult history but has persevered and we're now on the cusp of making 事実 進歩 in 生き返らせるing this special place.

'However, with a third wave of onshore 勝利，勝つd 開発s navigating Energy 同意 部隊 planning 訴訟／進行s, the community is left feeling voiceless and impotent in the 直面する of what can only be 述べるd as an unrelenting pattern of 同意s at any cost.'

It was, of course, Christopher Moran who, all those years ago, 辞退するd to 蜂の巣 off a third of an acre of his land as a final 残り／休憩（する）ing place for the community's dead on the grounds it would 'just look awful'.

He has not spoken 公然と on how he feels turning the Cabrach into the 'UK's largest onshore 勝利，勝つd park' would look.

Neither he, his son nor Sir Hugh 答える／応じるd to our requests for comment.

A crumb of 慰安 for those desperate to 保存する the area （機の）カム from the 省 of Defence this week. It 反対するd to the Clashindarroch 拡張 on Mr Moran's land, （人命などを）奪う，主張するing RAF Lossiemouth 操縦するs, who train in the area at 高度s as low as 250ft, could 衝突，墜落 into the turbines. They would also 干渉する with レーダ 場所／位置s.

支援する in London, there are more problems for Mr Moran's Chelsea Cloisters. It is 直面するing a £4.5million 法案 for 未払いの 付加価値税 after Realreed lost a 法廷 事例／患者 against the HMRC late last year.

The financier will likely be in no mood to lose another 戦う／戦い in Scotland.

j. brocklebank@dailymail.co.uk

As a 最高の-rich 大君 with a VERY chequered past, his Highland pile was once a 聖域. So why is he now at war with 隣人s (and the MOD) over his 議論の的になる 勝利，勝つd farm 計画（する）s?