CROFTING LAW - CHAPTER INTRODUCTION

This is the first of 12 posts serialising the chapter on crofting law which appeared in “Land Reform in Scotland” edited by Malcolm Combe, Jayne Glass and Annie Tindley and published by Edinburgh University Press in 2020.

INTRODUCTION

It is not necessary to read much of the Napier Report (as it became known) to understand why the law governing rights to land in nineteenth century Scotland required to be reformed. The report, being the final outcome of the Inquiry into the Conditions of the Crofters and Cottars of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (which will be referred to throughout this chapter as ‘the Napier Commission’), makes for painful reading, as the gross inequality between landlord and tenant is repeatedly demonstrated. The response of Gladstone’s Liberal government was illustrative of the wider political, social and economic changes taking place throughout Scotland.  Land reform was by this time well established on the political agenda in Scotland. Its time had come, in part, due to the breakdown of the relationship between clan chiefs and those who had once been clansmen and women, or with those who acquired land from traditional owners. Together with new economic challenges such as the decline in the price of cattle, overpopulation, the failure of the potato crop and the end of the kelp industry, that shift in societal structure resulted in clearance, resettlement, famine and widespread social deprivation. These hardships led directly to the agitation of the mid to late nineteenth century, which in turn led to the Napier Commission. [i]

This chapter aims, firstly, to summarise the development of crofting law from 1886 to 2019.  It is fair to say that a few elements of the current framework could scarcely have been predicted 133 years ago. However, as Sir Crispin of Agnew of Lochnaw, Bt QC has observed, ‘many of the sections of the 1993 Act can be found in the wording of the 1886 Act.’[ii]The backbone of the system has always been the principles of (1) security of tenure, (2) controlled rents, and (3) compensation for improvements carried out to the land. Despite demonstrable current appetite for the reform of crofting law, there have been remarkably few calls to remove the original protections. The chapter will go on to identify and analyse some of the challenges which face crofting in the modern era, namely: (1) the state of crofting legislation itself, (2) crofting law and its arguably dysfunctional relationship with the wider land reform movement; (3) the conflicting objectives of the crofting system, and (4) the market in crofts and croft tenancies. 

[i] Scottish Record Office, The Crofters, p.15.

[ii] Agnew, C. H. (2000) Crofting Law, Tottel Publishing, p. 1

The next post, which covers the development of crofting law between 1886 and 1911, will be published next week on this website. See note below for details of all 12 posts.

As always, if you need help or wish to discuss crofting law, do get in touch.

Eilidh

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Note Referred To:-

Introduction

Development of Crofting Law

1886-1911

1911-1955

1955-1976

1976-1993

1993-1997

1997-2019

Challenges

Crofting legislation

Crofting law v land reform

The Conflicting Priorities of the Crofting System

The Impossibility of Purchase

Conclusion