A businessman is seeking £1m in damages over claims he was misled over the number of grouse he was allowed to shoot.

Alistair Erskine says he took over 11,000 acres of moorland at Castle Grant, near Grantown-on-Spey, on the understanding he would be able to shoot 2000 grouse a year.

After nearly five years, and after £530,000 of investments, he says he has only bagged 360 birds.

Mr Erskine, who owns Edinbrugh Smoked Salmon Company and Summer Isles Foods, wants £1m in damages and for the 15-year lease to be scrapped.

His case was thrown out of the Court of Session in Edinburgh over a legal loophole because he is taking the action in the name of his company Cramaso, which was not formed until after the discussions over the deal began. His appeal against that decision was rejected on Thursday.

The businessman has now vowed to take his case to the Supreme Court in London.

He said: "Had the figures been correct, Castle Grant would have been one of the most productive grouse moors in Scotland at the time the representations were made.

"It is very disappointing that having questioned the grouse stocks the response was so inaccurate.

"Lord Hodge ruled Mr Sandy Lewis, the estate chief executive, had misled us and failed in his duty of care when citing over-inflated grouse bag numbers in advance of us signing a 15-year lease for the moor.

"We have also lost out on hundreds of thousands of pounds of agricultural subsidies we were led to believe would be available.”

Mr Erskine says he was induced to enter into the lease as a result of a fraudulent, or negligent, misrepresentation by Seafield Estate, which Castle Grant is part of.

He is pursuing the Right Honorable Ian Derek Francis Ogilvie-Grant, Earl of Seafield, and others as trustees of Viscount Reidhaven.

A spokeswoman for trust said: "The trustees are pleased to note that the three judges of the Inner House of the Court of Session have found in favour of the trust, thus upholding the decision of judge Lord Hodge at first instance."