As the convoy of gas-guzzling 4x4s pulled to a halt outside the modest croft house, the neighbours across the road looked distinctly unimpressed.

“He’s only a human being — we never saw the likes of this in our lives,” said one. “He’s had a lifetime to come here so why is he doing it now? It’s a PR stunt.”

Like millions of Americans before him, Donald John Trump, 61, the billionaire famous for his skyscrapers, overblown catchphrases and as the face of the US version of The Apprentice, had come to find his Scottish roots. It was just 24 hours before his scheduled appearance before a public inquiry called to hear evidence about his proposal to build “the world’s greatest golf course” on sand dunes in Aberdeenshire.

As the man known as “the Donald” posed for photographs with his Scottish cousins outside the house on the Isle of Lewis where his mother was born, the tailfin of his Boeing 727 — emblazoned with a giant red “T” — was just visible on the tarmac of the airport across the bay.

“Morning, everybody. Windy, huh?” he said, as the first spots of rain began to fall and the world’s most famous comb-over haircut came close to showing why the Outer Hebrides is known as the wind-power capital of Europe.

He clenched his fist and waved for the photographers before Alastair Murray, who lives at the croft with brother, William, led him up the path and into the house. Across the road the neighbours folded their arms and shook their heads. In the distance sheep grazed.

Today Mr Trump will testify at a public inquiry in Aberdeen — the real purpose of his visit — that has been convened to consider the proposed £1 billion golf resort he wants to build on a stretch of protected sand dunes north of the city. The development, which has been condemned by environmentalists, was referred to a public inquiry by the Scottish government after councillors rejected it last year.

Ever since he announced his plans to build the resort three years ago Mr Trump, said to be worth at least $3 billion (£1.5 billion), has spoken repeatedly of his love for Scotland inherited from his late mother, Mary Ann MacLeod, a native Gaelic speaker who met Mr Trump’s father after emigrating to the US as a young woman.

Yesterday this passion detained him on the island for just over 180 minutes. He spent a grand total of 97 seconds inside 5 Tong, where his mother was born in 1912, one of six children of a fisherman.

Speaking after meeting his first cousins William, Alastair, Calum and Mary Ann — the children of Mr Trump’s mother’s sister — he said that he had not stayed longer out of politeness. “Two wonderful relatives live in the house,” he said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to go around making an inspection of the house, but I would say it was in very nice shape.” Standing on a windswept hillside four miles outside Stornoway, 5 Tong is a far cry from Mr Trump’s signature skyscrapers. A grey, pebbledash, two-storey house with moss growing on the slate roof, and a broken garage window, it backs on to a field where the local highland games are held every summer and looks across to a rocky field that remains to this day the family croft and that rolls down to the sweeping sands in the bay below.

He admitted that it was a strange experience returning to his mother’s birthplace. “There is an emotion to it,” he said. “I had a great mother who was a beautiful woman and also a great woman in many ways.”

After attending a concert in Boston given by his friend Sir Elton John on Sunday night, Mr Trump had boarded the six-hour flight to Stornoway, touching down just before 10am. His brightly coloured private jet dwarfed anything else flying into the airport.

Addressing reporters in a café in Stornoway, where locals gave him rousing applause, Mr Trump said the trip was his first visit to Lewis since he came as a toddler with his mother — a trip of which he has no recollection.

Flanked by his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, 71, a federal appeals court judge, he said: “I was here many, many years ago with my mother as a young child and I haven’t been back since because I’ve been so busy working . . . having some fun in New York. We’re building all over the world, and now we are back here we are just happy to be back here.”

Asked whether there was any truth to claims that his trip was a cynical PR exercise, he replied: “Zero. We were flying in, and I said this was the right time to come.” He also met council officials to discuss the possibility of giving money to restore the local castle.

His sister, who has been to Lewis more than two dozen times, charmed local reporters by speaking a few words of Gaelic before giving a ringing endorsement of her brother that sounded like a courtroom character reference. “I just want to say, my mother would be so proud to see Donald here today,” she said.

Calum Murray, 60, one of the cousins, said: “We’re happy to see him, although the visit is very brief.” If he shared anything with Mr Trump, he said, it was a belief in determination and hard work. “I don’t see any physical resemblance at all, though when I was younger I was pretty driven.”

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