Dubai’s billionaire ruler Sheikh al-Maktoum wants to add an 11-bed mansion to the two grand houses and hunting lodge on his Highlands estate… because the 63,000-acre site is ‘limited by lack of accommodation’

Dubai's billionaire ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has submitted plans to build another new home on his sprawling Highlands estate – weeks after an extension was signed off by local planners.

The sheikh, a friend of the late queen who was embroiled in a scandal over the alleged detention of his daughter Princess Latifa, wants to build an 11-bedroom lodge on the 63,000-acre Inverinate Estate in Wester Ross.

It already boasts helipads, two large houses, a 16-bed hunting lodge, a swimming pool and a gym – and permission for an extension to one of the houses, which has 17 bedrooms, was signed last month.

Despite this, officers acting for the sheikh's British company Smech Management say his time at Inverinate Estate has been 'limited due to lack of accommodation'.

The new accommodation, if approved, will be built next to the 17-bed Benula Lodge, which was completed in 2021 at a reported cost of £2.4 million, according to documents lodged with Highland Council.

A draft statement attached to the application, submitted to Highland Council in November, reads: 'The owners of Inverinate Estate typically travel in large groups of immediate and extended family and friends.

'In recent years their trips to Inverinate have been limited due to lack of accommodation.

'Additional staff housing was completed in 2017 to create infrastructure that would support greater use of the estate by the owner.

'This new application aims to create living space for use by the owners, their families and their guests, so they can enjoy more frequent and longer visits to Inverinate.'

Technical drawings show that the three-storey house will include a large 57m² living room and bedroom on the ground floor, with five bedrooms on the first floor and a further five on the second.

Other features include a dining room, utility room and conservatory, as well as a staff toilet which is only accessible from the outside of the building.

If approved, it will be the latest in a long line of additions to the sheikh's estate, which he reportedly visits for a few weeks each year.

However, his enthusiasm for expanding his holiday properties – possibly to accommodate his children, of whom he believes he has 30 – has rubbed locals the wrong way in the past.

His plans for Ptarmigan Lodge, on the eastern edge of his estate, were the subject of more than 30 complaints from locals because the house was just 20 meters away from that of resident Roddy Macleod.

Highland councilors rejected the application, but the decision was overturned following an appeal to the Scottish Government.

The application was lit green on the condition that the sheikh's company paid £30,000 for local affordable housing.

But the small amount moved a local resident just kidding: 'That amount of money is most likely what one of his wives would want to spend on a designer handbag.'

Last year the Sheikh was given permission to add a luxury 'garden room' overlooking Loch Duich to the site, after planners concluded it would have no negative impact on the area.

Sheikh Mohammed has an estimated fortune of £14 billion. He bought Inverinate Estate more than 20 years ago as an escape from the Middle East's brutal summers, but owns several other properties in the UK, including houses in London.

He has had at least six wives and is divorced from all but one, his first wife Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum.

The sheikh is also said to have fathered about 30 children.

He became embroiled in controversy after allegations in 2018 that his daughter Princess Latifa was being held against her will in the United Arab Emirates, whose sheikh is vice president.

She reportedly escaped the country that year, posting on Instagram: “My father ordered his men to “beat me until they kill me.” They didn't let me travel and had no choice at all, I had to take it for myself.'

She was then picked up in international waters and returned to Dubai.

However, her sister, Princess Shamsa, has not been seen since she was taken off the streets of Cambridge by men working for her father in 2000 and flown back to Dubai on a private jet.

Latifa claims her sister was also kidnapped. A British family court later ruled that the sheikh likely orchestrated the kidnapping and torture of his two runaway daughters.

The judge found that the sheikh had “used the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, abuse and oppress, with total disregard for the rule of law.”

After the ruling, Sheikh Mohammed claimed that his status as head of government prevented him from participating in the case, and accused the courts of telling only “one side of the story.”

Earlier this year, a new Instagram profile purportedly belonging to Latifa posted a statement saying she was “completely free and living an independent life.”

The message added: 'I live in Dubai most of the year and can also travel, which is what I want.'

In December 2021, a judge in London ordered the sheikh to pay his ex-wife £554 million in Britain's largest divorce settlement.

He was told to pay Princess Haya bint al-Hussein an initial lump sum of £251.5 million within three months for the safety of her and their two children.

Prince Haya fled the United Arab Emirates with their children in 2019, claiming she was 'terrified' of her husband.