The James Hutton Institute
This page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute.
THE STATE OF SCOTLAND'S FARMED ENVIRONMENT 2005
13. LAND TENURE AND LAND OWNERSHIP
Public
In the 19 th century state ownership of land was not common in Scotland , with only 0.3% in 1872. However, with the strategic decisions that flowed particularly from the events of the two World Wars, there was a significant increase in state ownership.
Today around 12% (c.1.3M ha) of Scotland is owned by public bodies.
The largest areas are held by the Forestry Commission (773,000ha), SEERAD and the local authorities respectively. The MoD and SNH have relatively smaller land holdings.
Not-For-Profit Organisations
Although ownership by not-for-profit organizations can be traced back to the 1930s with the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) purchasing part of Glencoe, such ownership has accelerated since the 1980s. This phenomenon is widely perceived as the consequence of ineffective conservation policy ( Warren , 2002). Between 1980 and 1995 the area owned by this sector rose by 146% (to 133,500ha).
The purchase of the Mar Lodge estate in 1995 elevated the NTS to the third largest landowner in Scotland .
The RSPB and the John Muir Trust are other conservation organizations with major land holdings and as a group the conservation bodies now constitute the largest non-public landowner in Scotland ( Warren , 2002). If this trend were to continue, their land holding could soon exceed that in public ownership. However, doubts have been expressed about the long term sustainability of the growth in such land ownership and charitable bodies were much less active in the land market in 2004 (Strutt and Parker, 2005).
Contemporary patterns of ownership - Community Organisations >>