Donald Trump to open second Aberdeenshire golf course in 2025

Donald Trump is to open a second golf course in Aberdeenshire next year.

The 18-hole links MacLeod Course - named after the former US president’s Lewis-born mother, Mary - will welcome players at the Trump International resort in Menie from the Summer of 2025.

The resort claimed the course would feature the “largest sand dunes in Scotland” and form “the greatest 36 holes in golf” alongside the original course, completed in 2012.

Trump and his son Eric broke ground on the project last year – three years after it was given the go-ahead by the local council.

Trump's golf resort in Aberdeenshire has prompted controversy in the past; four years ago the dunes at Menie lost their status as a nationally-important protected environment.

But Trump International claimed the new course was “one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable” ever built.

Images show areas of rough covered in heather, with the course perched on the beach, yards from the North Sea.

Sarah Malone, executive vice president of Trump International Scotland, hailed the course as “one of the great wonders in the world of golf”.

She said: “Since breaking ground with President Trump and Eric Trump last spring, we have made extraordinary progress.

“This course is unlike any other links course ever built and is exceeding every expectation.

“A truly remarkable, world-class team of architects, engineers, environmental scientists and industry specialists have been working tirelessly in the background – etching out every square inch of this phenomenal piece of land to create one of the great wonders in the world of golf.”

The Scottish Greens have said Trump and his new golf course "are not welcome in Aberdeenshire", accusing the former president of being a climate-change denier with a "long history of lies and dodgy business dealings".

The party's North East MSP Maggie Chapman said: “Another Trump vanity project is the last thing we need.

“Scotland cannot be a country where anyone with the money is able to buy whatever land and property they want without question. He is a thoroughly discredited and dishonest individual.

"Any land developed should be in the interest of all people, not only those with an expensive hobby."

Trump handed over control of his Scottish golf courses to his sons shortly before he became president in 2017 but retained a financial interest.

Trump International Golf Club Scotland operates the club he built north of Aberdeen.

It opened amid opposition over potential environmental damage.

It has come under fire for damage to what was a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) prior to the development of the golf course.

More recently, Mr Trump's Turnberry course in Ayrshire was cited as the most expensive place to play in the UK after fees rose to up to £1,000 a round.