TYCOON Donald Trump is to visit his mother's former home on the Isle of Lewis.
Trump will see the croft where his mother lived in the village of Tong, outside Stornoway.
It will be the iconic businessman's first visit to the island which his mother, Mary, left in the 1930s when she moved to a new life in the United States.
She met his father, Fred, on the other side of the Atlantic and their son was born in New York in 1946.
In addition to visiting the ancestral home, he will also be looking for business opportunities on the islands which have been battered by gloomy economic news and depopulation in recent years.
Islanders had hoped Trump would make the trip last year when he was in Scotland visiting a planned golf development, but he flew straight to the site in Aberdeenshire.
A Scottish spokeswoman for Trump said: "He is planning to visit sometime within the next 12 months. He wants to see the place his mother came from."
She added: "Although the main purpose is to visit the home, he will be on the look-out for business opportunities."
Trump's Gaelic-speaking mother
visited Lewis in the 1990s when she was in her eighties and died in the United States in 2000 at the age of 88.
On one occasion, she was mugged in a New York shopping mall and taken into hospital. At first, the doctor tending her thought the attack had rendered her incoherent, because he could not understand what she was saying. But eventually an Irish nurse working on the ward realised Mary was speaking Gaelic; the mugging had traumatised her to such an extent she had reverted to her mother-tongue.
Trump is fiercely proud of his Scottish ancestry, and the website for his golfing development in Aberdeenshire contains an entire section devoted to the genealogy of his mother.
When she lived in Lewis, the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides, had a population of 40,000, but the projected figure for the next census is just 22,400 as declines in traditional industries such as fishing and tweed have forced the young to leave in search of better prospects elsewhere.
Alasdair Allan, the Western Isles MSP who lives in the nearby village of Bhatasgair, said: "It'll be great to have him here and I think everyone here in Lewis will want to give him a warm welcome. And it would be good news if any business opportunities could come from his visit."
Trump is to visit Scotland this week as he checks on plans for his proposed £1bn golf resort.
It will be the businessman's first visit to the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire since council planners gave the proposals their backing.
Trump, who arrives tomorrow, has vowed to build the "best golf resort in the world" at the coastal site near Balmedie.
During his stay, he will hold meetings with members of Trump International who are overseeing the plans for two 18-hole championship golf courses and a 450-bedroom hotel.
The Trump International Golf Links Scotland resort would also include 950 holiday homes and 36 golf villas.
A final decision is expected by Aberdeenshire Council on October 30.
A Trump Organisation spokesman said: "The purpose of the visit is a working trip where he will be going over all aspects of the development with his team at Trump International.
"Mr Trump takes a very close personal interest in every aspect of the progress of the golf resort."
The developer last visited the estate in April last year, when he said: "There are a few other sites where I feel this could be achieved but I really wanted to come to Scotland."
The full article contains 633 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
