‘Taking over a small local area may seem like a tiny act, but it is empowering. A community has power’
Local groups are rising up to fight for land in the Highlands
On the outskirts of Inverness, a much-loved forest was falling into ruin.
Dead trees had been blown over in storms, their broken branches dangling precariously over secluded walking paths. Vandalism of healthy trees was rife and litter was strewn everywhere.
The forest was in dire need of some TLC, but it was unclear who was responsible for undertaking the work. In 2018, a group of concerned locals found that, after being subject to more than a decade of behind-the-scenes bureaucracy, the land had actually been rendered “ownerless” in 2014.
The group then formed Culduthel Community Woods (CCW) and took the maintenance and upkeep of the local beauty spot into their own hands.
Their efforts were so successful that, in 2022, they were formally awarded ownership of the woods. Nowadays, the woodland is abuzz with plant and wildlife, and volunteers work hard to ensure the area is a green haven.
Murray Ferguson, chair of the group, said: “It’s a pretty fun thing to be involved with, and the people involved want to make their community better, and here is something practical that they can do.
“It has a lot of mental health benefits because you’re doing something outside, you’re making the world a slighter better place. It’s popular work.”
CCW is a community land ownership success story, one the current Scottish Government, and many land reformists, would like to see replicated across the country.
When done well, community ownership can re-energise an area and stave off decline, especially in a time when strapped budgets are forcing local councils to radically tighten their purse strings. Before the revolution can kick off, however, community groups – and the Scottish Government – must deal with the few hundred wealthy landowning elephants in the room.
Scotland has the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in Europe, with more than 50% of private land in the hands of about 440 owners – 0.008% of Scotland’s overall population.
Over the past 20 years, the Scottish Government has been tentatively introducing legislation to make land ownership more equal, with former first minister Alex Salmond pledging in 2013 that a million hectares would be under community ownership by 2020. Latest figures indicate that only about 212,342 hectares are in community care.
In the face of the climate crisis, corporations and the independently wealthy are rushing to buy up large swathes of Scottish land for environmental reasons.
“Green lairds” want to rewild rural areas and improve biodiversity, while large corporations want to use land for “carbon offsetting”, a way to environmentally balance the books.
More generally, Scottish land is seen as a sound investment for the very wealthy, and large Scottish estates are still considered status symbols among the upper echelons of society.
“Despite 21 years of a land reform agenda, land ownership is actually concentrating even more in Scotland,” explained Josh Doble, policy manager at Community Land Scotland. “With extreme wealth concentrated in so few hands, people can buy up as many of these estates as they want without regulation or oversight.”
Despite the odds, communities have become increasingly empowered to fight for their local areas in recent years, a phenomenon that Peter Cairns, executive director of Scotland: The Big Picture, puts down to greater transparency about the activities of large Scottish estates.
He said: “If you take grouse moors for example – they enjoyed anonymity for decades. But in recent years, and the internet plays a part, people began to scratch the surface and say, ‘wait a minute’. And, after the things that have come out about grouse moors in the last 10, 20 years, that turns into an upwelling of resentment across wider society, people ask questions, and those questions percolate up to policy level.”
The most recent policy was this year’s land reform bill, which was met with anger and frustration by large landowners, who feel they are being demonised. If made law, ministers would have the power to break up sales of land over 1,000 hectares into smaller lots, and communities will have prior notice of sales so they have time to put together an offer. A brainchild of the now shattered Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Greens, large landowners may feel the bill is now on shakier ground.
It would be wrong, however, to completely dismiss Scotland’s large landowners’ concerns, explained Cairns. He said: “There’s a few large landowners who are at the table having discussions, who want to be more accessible, more democratic, more community-minded.
“From their point of view, they are asking what they have to do. And there’s lots of different bodies shouting at them about what they think community land ownership should look like.
“It’s dangerous to generalise, and there is an element of some of them not wanting things to change. But, for others, there’s no clear pathway of what change looks like.
“Everyone has a different opinion on what Scotland should look like, and who it should benefit. And some large landowners feel, ‘this is going to cost me time, money and hassle, and there’s no consensus on what I have to do – come back in 10 years when you have your act together’.”
Regular people battling for their community will be fighting an upward battle for the foreseeable future, as residents around Loch Lomond found out last week when plans for a huge Flamingo Land resort were backed by local councillors despite recordbreaking opposition from local groups.
But Doble insisted: “Taking over a small local area may seem like a small act, but it is incredibly empowering. There’s power in community.”