Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum is planning to build a 16-bedroom mansion at Wester Ross in the Scottish highlands, said a report.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the Prime MInister and Vice-President of the UAE, is seeking permission to build a lodge-style home on his 63,000-acre Inverinate Estate near the Kyle of Lochalsh through his company, Smech Management, reported the local daily Scotsman.

The report pointed out that the Dubai ruler had earlier submitted plans for a 14-bedroom home which faced objections from planners on Highland Council but were later approved by the local authority’s planning committee in 2009.

The new project includes a swimming pool and gym, it added.

The Maktoum family, said the daily, had in the past made contributions to the local community, including building a £250,000 (414,675) Inverinate and Loch Duich Community Centre and donating funds towards its running costs.

He has also donated land for a care home for the elderly and, outside the Highlands, is patron of the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee.

The Scottish paper said Sheikh Mohammed had bought the Inverinate Estate 30 years ago for £2 million. His family still visits for a few weeks every year in the summer.