BRUCE McKain, your Law Correspondent, is mistaken in his report on Mr Mohammed Al Fayed's legal action relating to Balnagowan Castle in Easter Ross (December 12)

Balnagowan is most certainly not ``the seat of Clan Ross'', and has not been so since a hereditary chief occupied it - and that was 1711 when the thirteenth and last Baron of Balnagowan died. He, like myself, was a descendant of the thirteenth-century Earldom of Ross.

While Mr Al Fayed's contribution to the preservation of Balnagowan as a property is widely recognised, he most certainly has no connection whatsoever with Clan Ross whose ``seat'' is where this Chief now is; and that is elsewhere in Scotland, a country in which I am proud to live on a permanent and full-time basis.

David Ross of Ross,

Chief of the Name and Arms of Ross,

Fettercairn,

Kincardineshire.