A couple were yesterday ordered to leave a Highland castle within a week - after a court action raised by their son.
Alan and Sybil Dobson have seven days to move out of Duncraig Castle, which they share with their family, or face eviction.
It follows an extraordinary civil action which was raised at Dingwall Sheriff Court by their son Samuel and his wife Perlin to remove them from the property in Plockton.
Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen made the ruling to order the parents from the castle yesterday after hearing that there were issues of "child welfare" involved. None of the Dobsons attended the hearing. Samuel Dobson, 43, and his wife were represented by solicitor Ewen Macdonald.
He said Alan and Sybil Dobson, both 63, had no defence on the action, which focused on Social Work department concerns relating to Alan Dobson's history with the courts in England. He said the issue concerned "child welfare".
Normally people under eviction orders are given 14 days to leave, but Sheriff MacFadyen gave the couple just a week to move out.
Perlin Dobson, 44, speaking from the castle after hearing of the decision, said: "I am really pleased. This has been a painful process and now hopefully we can get on with the rest of our lives.
"Since we bought the castle it has been interesting and challenging, but things are looking up. We have a B&B running now and an exhibition and the castle was in the movie Mister Lonely, which featured at the Cannes Film festival recently."
She added: "We just want Duncraig Castle to be a happy place, like it used to be."
She refused to give details of their concerns with her husband's parents.
The development is the latest twist in a saga more akin to a television soap opera since the extended Dobson family bought Duncraig, near the village where the TV series Hamish Macbeth was filmed nearly four years ago.
Three generations of the Dobson family, including seven children, eight parents and two grandparents, moved in to live commune-style, while restoring the derelict castle.
But a year on from the purchase, life at Duncraig Castle looked far from rosy. Two of the elder brothers fell out amid rows, there have been threats of walking out and personality clashes, and solicitors were called in by both sides. A separate member of the family moved back to Leicester.
Another couple who joined the venture left after a few months because they were said to have been deeply unhappy with the dictatorial way of life at the castle.
Worse still, the family has run out of money and restoration work has stalled.
The family did its best to put on a brave face for the television cameras which filmed them for a six-part BBC documentary which broadcast in 2004. The Dobsons are being paid £30,000 for the documentary. Buena Vista, the international arm of Disney, has paid a similar sum for the film rights.
Perlin Dobson spotted Duncraig Castle for sale in a newspaper while on honeymoon in 2002. With her husband, a builder and property developer, she persuaded the rest of the Dobson family to sell up and raise the £505,000 price tag.
Their new home came with 41 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two islands and 40 acres of surrounding woodland, complete with its own railway station.
Last used as a domestic science college, the castle had not been occupied for 12 years.
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