ReutersUS Vice-President JD Vance has left Scotland after a private holiday with his family.
Vance spent four days in the country, during which time he stayed on a private country estate in Hurlford on the outskirts of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire.
A motorcade took Vance and his family to Prestwick Airport on Sunday morning before he took off on Air Force Two just before 13:00.
During his time in the country, he golfed at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort and also spent time in the Cotswolds in England, where he met foreign secretary, David Lammy.
His visit came just weeks after Trump arrived in Scotland for a flying visit, where he too golfed at Turnberry and his course at Menie in Aberdeenshire.
Vance’s return to the US coincides with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, travelling to the White House for a meeting with Trump.
PA MediaIt follows talks between the US president and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which failed to reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.
A few plane spotters gathered outside the airport to watch Air Force Two take off.
Vance, who refers to himself as a “Scots-Irish hillbilly, stayed at the sprawling 2,000-acre Carnell Estates, which features a 14th Century tower and a 10-bedroom mansion.
Vance, like Trump, claims Scottish ancestry, but from Galloway rather than the Isle of Lewis, where the president’s mother was born.
However, that claim, made in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, has been questioned in the past.
Police Scotland previously confirmed they were carrying out a “significant policing operation” prior to Vance’s arrival.
Airspace restrictions were put in place over the estate until Sunday.
Pro-Palestinian protesters greeted him when he arrived at the estate on Wednesday.
They were later asked to disperse by Police Scotland.
ReutersFrench President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni all said they would join Starmer and Vance at the White House on Monday.
Trump has said he wants to bypass securing a ceasefire in Ukraine in favour of a permanent peace agreement.
Putin reportedly presented Trump with a peace offer during talks in Alaska that would require Ukraine withdrawing from the Donetsk region of the Donbas.
In return, Russia would freeze front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
However, the Ukrainian president has previously ruled out ceding control of the Donbas, saying it could be used as a springboard for future Russian attacks.
