BALMEDIE, Scotland (Reuters) - The view from above on this wild and exposed stretch of Scotland's eastern coast looks nothing like a transatlantic battlefield.

The tranquil sea reflects a pale, mid-afternoon sun and the only sound comes from seabirds as a breeze ripples the sand on the dunes that stretch south towards Balmedie village.

But this idyllic area has become the unlikely site of a fascinating clash.

It is where American tycoon Donald Trump plans to build a billion-pound luxury golf resort, complete with five-star hotel, 950 time-share apartments and 500 houses.

It is also where a determined farmer called Michael Forbes, backed by well-wishers from around the world, has taken a stand against the money invasion by telling Trump to "shove it".

Local opinion is sharply divided ahead of a key meeting next Tuesday when councillors are due to make an initial ruling on the plans.

In the past month, objections to the scheme have grown four-fold to reach 1,542. Letters of support have climbed just 24 percent to 1,850.

The golf resort would be Trump's sixth, but the only one on this side of the Atlantic.

It would, he says, be a product of his links with Scotland: his mother grew up on a croft in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

"Because my mother is Mary MacLeod from Stornoway — she lived in Stornoway for many years, I guess about 20 years before she came to the United States — I really had a preference for Scotland, and it's also the home of golf," says Trump in an interview posted on a website created by his company to promote the development (www.trumpgolfscotland.com).

"We saw a piece of land in Scotland that was really beautiful. And it's our ambition to ... build the best course anywhere in Europe and maybe the best course in the world and I think we have the piece of land to do it."

The development, at the Menie Estate near Balmedie beach, which lies 13 miles north of Aberdeen, provides a "unique opportunity to conserve and enhance the environment", according to Trump International.

Trump himself is quoted in the Guardian newspaper as saying he is "saving" the dunes: "It's a piece of land which is disappearing ...it's blowing all over the place."

But environmental groups, including government conservation agency Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and pressure group Sustainable Aberdeenshire, have criticised the plans to stabilise a rare, 4,000-year-old dynamic sand dune system — one of the top five dune habitats in Britain.

SNH says the development would effectively destroy a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) that covers about a third of the resort and is an important habitat for flora and fauna.

Mickey Foote, spokesman for Sustainable Aberdeenshire said: "it's all a marketing device to sell high value properties: it's exploitation of our resource and it's a particularly sensitive and beautiful resource that we don't want to give up."

It is over this dramatic coastline that some 150 protestors — led by a band of drummers from Aberdeen University's African Drummers' Society and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as "Don't Trump on the Protected Dunes" — are due to march tomorrow.

Over and above environmental concerns, the "No to Trump, Menie Not Money" action group, which has organised the march, believes the proposals will blight the landscape and lead to the loss of the public's right to roam over the dunes.

"Turn Menie into a golf course, and everyone's right of access no longer applies," it says on its website (www.meniescotland.co.uk).

Robert Ballinger, his wife Clare and their dog Willow are among those planning to join this weekend's protest.

"Can I remind everyone taking part on Saturday that the site is an SSSI and everyone will need to act responsibly," he says on the group's message board.

"We only want good publicity, as I'm sure there will be Trumpites out to get us. We can stop this rape of the countryside."

A resident of nearby Foveran, who did not want to be named, is also vehemently opposed, she tells Reuters.

What would her message be to Trump? "Shame on you for disrupting our lives like this.

"I seem to recall you saying if local people didn't want your 'resort', you'd go elsewhere. Well, as we say in Scotland — on yer bike."

If such protest groups were not enough to contend with, Trump has also come up against the redoubtable Forbes, a 55-year-old salmon farmer who is refusing to sell his 23 acres of land that sit right in the middle of the proposed development.

He believes Trump's plans offer a lot for Trump and little for Scotland and he is annoyed at the way the developer has criticised him for what it calls the "disgusting" state of his land.

"Take your insult and shove it. Do not bother me again: NOT FOR SALE," was his curt reply.

"They say that money talks; not with me it doesn't," he told Reuters. "He has no chance of getting it."

But, for all of those against Trump, there are as many for.

"Come on Grampian. Stop shilly shallying and come out in favour of the Trump golf development," writes Norman Wilson, from Forglen, Turriff, in the letters page of the local paper, the Press and Journal.

"The economic benefits would be enormous and this would further establish the northeast as a serious rival to St. Andrews."

Economic development and tourism agencies — Scottish Enterprise and its Scottish Development International arm, Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and VisitScotland — have, unsurprisingly, also come out in support, particularly given dwindling North Sea oil reserves and Trump's goal to bring the Open golf tournament to Scotland.

Of their backing, he can be sure. But there is one thing he can not count on of course: the weather.

Don Banks, who lives on the Menie Estate and is a leading opponent of the development, believes the fog rolling in off the sea could be a serious threat to plans for championship golf.

"How about three to four days of serious fog," he asked. "You're hardly going to be able to see the golfers, let alone the ball — unless you are using infra red cameras."