A Scottish aristocrat with a passion for surfing was tragically found dead at the foot of cliffs on Saturday night.
Alexander Sutherland, Lord Strathnaver, 40, was found at the bottom of 9-meter cliffs in Thurso East, near the ruined 19th-century Thurso Castle in Caithness.
Thurso Lifeboat reported that a rescue ship was launched at 11:30 p.m. after reports of a person on the rocks.
“The lifeboat quickly made its way to the area and trained crew members landed in the inflatable Y-boat. They have located the victim, given CPR and assisted the Scottish ambulance service and the local coastguard to resolve the situation until the Scotland police took control,” a lifeboat group spokesman said.
Lord Strathnaver, who would have celebrated his 41st birthday next month, was the only son of Alistair Sutherland, 25th Earl of Sutherland – who took the title in 2019.
The family had already experienced tragedy when Lord Strathnaver’s cousin Jamie Janson, 44 – the son of Earl Martin’s twin brother and a grandnephew of scandal-stricken Conservative minister John Profumo – committed suicide in 2019.
Alexander Sutherland, 40, who inherited the title of Lord Strathnaver when his grandmother Elizabeth, 24th Countess of Sutherland, died in 2019 at the age of 98, was an avid surfer and heir to the county of Sutherland.
Lord Strathnaver, was found at the bottom of 9m cliffs in Thurso East, near the ruined 19th century Thurso Castle in Caithness (pictured)
A friend said Lord Strathnaver had been to the Tunes in the Dunes music festival in Dunnet, the northernmost point of mainland Britain, this weekend.
An avid surfer, he also had a house a few miles away in Thurso East, a top surfing location in the UK.
“Unfortunately, Al couldn’t be rescued. He was such a nice guy – a very happy person. He had no air. I didn’t know him as Lord Strathnaver – just like Al.
‘He was an avid surfer – he surfed every day and that’s why he had a house in Thurso East. He also had a small surf shop. Looks like he had been to the music festival, left it and maybe went back. It’s such a tragic loss.’
His grandmother, the Elizabeth, 24th Countess of Sutherland, died in 2019 at the age of 98.
The Countess’s death meant that her eldest son Alistair became the Earl of Sutherland – and inherited the 120,000-acre estate of Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland – and his son Alexander assumed the title of Lord Strathnaver.
The Earl’s twin brother, Martin, a few minutes younger, received £250,000 in the £18 million will that his mother, Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, wrote three days before her death.
Martin is married to Mary Ann Balfour – a niece of the notorious Conservative minister John Profumo, who was at the center of the Profumo affair in 1963.
Martin suffered a tragedy himself when his eldest son, former social worker Jamie Janson took his own life in 2019.
Janson, 44, had traveled to Syria to fight ISIS and was arrested on suspicion of terror crimes when he returned to the UK in March 2018.
He was released under an investigation but was never charged with any criminal offense and is believed to have been living in London at the time of his death.
His father Martin Janson, 72, told MailOnline: ‘My son Jamie committed suicide at the age of 44.
“As a family we are all devastated and we don’t want to talk about the circumstances. It’s tragic and something we’re all trying to deal with.
“There is a funeral next week at the family home in the north of Scotland.”
Lord Strathnaver’s father Alistair, the current 25th Earl of Sutherland, pictured outside the family seat of Dunrobin Castle in 1997
Published estate documents confirmed that the Countess drafted a new will, determining the fate of her vast fortune, drawn up with the help of Farrer & Co, the Queen’s lawyers.
Elizabeth left £25,000 to each of her grandchildren, £10,000 to each of her great-grandchildren and £5,000 to both Alistair’s current wife, Gillian, and his first wife, Eileen.
Most of the will is left to trusts associated with the castle.
Farrer explained it was unable to comment, as could a spokesman for the 189-room castle, that the Countess and Alistair were returning to its former glory after years of institutional use as a boys’ boarding school and opening it to the public.
Elizabeth had inherited the castle when her uncle, the 5th Duke of Sutherland, died childless in 1963.
The Countess, who was also chief of Clan Sutherland, was orphaned at the age of ten before quickly becoming a country girl, a skilled linguist, and an accomplished laboratory technician during World War II.
Dunrobin Castle is the most northerly of Scotland’s great houses. A spokesperson said the family has no comment at this time.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: ‘We were notified shortly after 11.20pm on Saturday 4 September of concerns about a 40-year-old man near Thurso Castle.
Emergency services attended the scene, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
“His death is being treated as inexplicable and an investigation is underway to determine the full circumstances.”