A heartbroken traveller faces being removed from his family home of more than four decades.
Charlie Williamson has been given until Thursday to vacate the parcel of land on which he has lived near Stanley for 42 years.
Mr Williamson (49) now fears he will face a winter homeless.
He said: ”I came to this site when I was eight and all my people have died. I’m the only one left. The owners have said they didn’t know I was here. I’ve nowhere else to go.”
Mr Williamson lives in his own caravan at ruined Shiellhill Cottage, off Linn Road. His family moved to the area in the 1940s to work the land for a local farmer and he was born nearby.
He has pledged to fight moves to remove him later this week.
He said: ”My dad came here in the 40s when he was a young man and him and mum got married in 1950. They used to work for the farmer up the road there.
”I was born in 1963 about half a mile from here at Shielhill Encampment, as it was then called. There was an agricultural agreement between my father and the farmer that we got to stay on the land and we would work the farm.”
Mr Williamson said he first received notice of a troubled future around a year ago and has been unable to persuade the landowner to alter their stance.
He said he has no idea why they suddenly want the plot back or how he even came to their attention.
He has now issued a desperate plea for help in his plight.
He said: ”Zurich Assurance owns the land now they’re telling me to be out by Thursday. They just said I shouldn’t be here because it’s private property and I don’t have the right to be here.
”I think it’s very unfair because I was brought up here and been here all my life and I know nothing else.
”They say they will come out and remove everything on Thursday. My caravan isn’t fit for moving so I will become homeless, right before winter.
”I must have some rights but I have no idea what they are at the moment”
He continued: ”The people in the village think it’s terrible, and there was even talk of a petition at one point, but I didn’t want that until things were clearer.”
A spokesperson from Threadneedle, on behalf of Zurich, said: ”We are in formal discussions with Mr Williamson regarding his future on the site.”