The Clan Sinclair Trust, which had already acquired the ancient family seat of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, has purchased the nearby former Noss Head lighthouse buildings from owner Ian Sinclair, together with surrounding policies of around 38 acres.

"We've bought it thanks to a couple of very generous donors - Niven Sinclair and his cousin Sandi Sinclair Pershing from the US," said the Earl of Caithness.

"We got a couple of valuations and agreed terms, and the deal has gone through. Ian could have put it on the open market, but he thought we should get the first bite of the cherry.

"I'm delighted we now have the property. There's a wonderful panoramic view from the lighthouse."

Manchester-born former college lecturer Ian Sinclair, who bought the category "A" listed lighthouse buildings and surrounding land eight years ago, and who is also clan historian and archivist, has retained a life-rent of part of the premises with his partner Joan Burton.

Noss Head lighthouse, designed by the celebrated Stevenson family of lighthouse builders, was completed in 1847. The light tower alone, now long automatic, remains the property of Northern Lighthouse Board.

Mr Sinclair (57) will continue to run the rapidly expanding historical archive, library and clan study centre he has founded.

He said: "It looks very much as if a new Clan Sinclair Centre will have to be built on the ground to house a new library, study centre and interpretation centre. We're now in the embarrassing situation that the library is full, and we're waiting to receive a further 1000 books from France, left by a deceased researcher there with Sinclair affinities."

Mr Sinclair explained that hundreds of visitors go to the lighthouse each year and that one of the buildings, now known as the Laird's Retreat, can accommodate eight people.

"We're hopeful that we can eventually set up a work scheme for maybe half a dozen young unemployed people, who could be trained as stonemasons to learn the techniques of selecting, cutting and working local stone," he added.

An expert on the history of Freemasonry and the mediaeval Knight Templar order, Mr Sinclair is Grand Prior of the Prince Henry St Clair Preceptory of Clan Sinclair of the Knight Templars of Scotland. This was founded in memory of Prince Henry St Clair, a Knight Templar and the first Scots Earl of Orkney.

London businessman and historian Niven Sinclair (82), who has already donated extensively to the clan library, is convinced that Prince Henry discovered America during a voyage of exploration in 1398, nearly a century before Columbus, though he died shortly after his return.

Benefactor Sandi Sinclair Pershing is a kinswoman of one of America's most famous soldiers, General John "Black Jack" Pershing (1860-1948), who commanded the US forces in Europe in World War One.

Clan historian Ian Sinclair.

While serving in the Philippines in 1913, Pershing is reputed by some sources as having quashed a brutal fundamentalist Muslim uprising by ordering the execution of some captured culprits with bullets dipped in pig fat.

The Caithness Sinclairs or St Clairs were a branch of the Norman-French family who founded Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, recently pitched into worldwide limelight following publication of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

Sinclairs, said the Earl of Caithness,first settled peacefully in Rosslyn or Roslin in 1057, nine years before their kinsman William of Normandy conquered England.

With the blessing of the Scottish kings, the clan spread to various parts of the kingdom.

The earliest parts of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe are thought to date back to at least the 14th century and the castle was extended in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The almost impregnable fortress was used by Cromwell's forces in the mid-17th century, and was later sold to Campbell of Glenorchy to defray Sinclair family debts.

A dispute between Campbell and his cousin George Sinclair of Keiss over the title and ownership of the estate resulted in the last clan battle in Scotland, at Altimarlach, near Wick, in 1680, when the Sinclairs were soundly thrashed by the invading Campbells.

In August 2004 the Earl of Caithness inaugurated major £400,000 excavation and restoration works, helped by a team from York University, as the first stage of a plan to turn the castle into a major tourist attraction.

This phase of restoration was funded by the World Monuments Fund, the Highland Council's Caithness area committee, Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, Historic Scotland and various private donors. Work completed to date indicates that much of what existing history books have to say about the castle may be inaccurate.

The Earl of Caithness, who is also chief executive of the Clan Sinclair Trust, said a field belonging to farmer Andrew Morgan of Noss Farm separated the castle, which is undergoing long-term restoration work, from the clan trust's new acquisition.

He added: "The trust has a very good working relationship with Mr Morgan. The access track to the castle is through his land, and he has been extremely helpful to us. Everybody's trying to achieve the same aim."

The earl said rebuilding and archaeological work on the ruin would start again shortly.

"It's expensive, but very worthwhile, to completely rewrite the history of the castle, and we hope to open it to the public as soon as possible, possibly late this year, or at the beginning of next year's tourist season."

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