Gresham House is now Scotland’s 2nd largest landowner
In October 2024, I published a blog highlighting the sale of a 2539 hectare (ha) portfolio of 16 woodland properties across Scotland owned by a French investment fund, Woodland Invest, based in Paris. The largest single investor owning 25% of the fund is the French state investment bank, Caisse des Dépôts, founded by Louis XVIII in 1816.
In evidence to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 3 December 2024, I highlighted this as an example of the kind of landholding that would benefit form mandatory lotting of the sort proposed in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill currently before Parliament. [1]
On lotting land, look at, for example, the sale of a French investment company, on which I did a blog recently. The company is called Woodland Invest, a significant share of which is owned by the French state investment bank, which was set up by Louis XVIII, I think. Woodland Invest owns a 2,500-hectare portfolio of property in Scotland— there are 16 separate properties from Aberdeenshire to Argyll and the Borders. There is one in your constituency, Mr Matheson— Slamannan. It might not be in your constituency, but it is close by. That is the land that you want to lot, because the folk in Slamannan might like a community woodland, the farmers in
Aberdeenshire might like some woodland for a bit of shelter, and a community in Argyll might want a community woodland. We should lot that, but that land would be sold as one job lot because it does not meet the threshold. It is more than 1,000 hectares, but it is completely disaggregated. That is precisely where you could step in and say, “Wait a minute.” If someone is selling 16 properties— there are some portfolios of about 30 or 40 properties for sale in Scotland—that is where you step in and lot.
The Bill proposes that sales of land in excess of 1000 ha are notified to Scottish Ministers who have the power to insist that they be sold in lots with no one owner being allowed to acquire more than one lot.
In theory this is meant to stimulate diversification of landownership but there are two significant problems.
Firstly, there is nothing to prevent a buyer agreeing privately to acquire the other lots after the lotting has been ordered and the sales have been concluded.
Secondly, the power only applies to landholdings that are contiguous with no one parcel more than 250 metres distant from another.
The kind of portfolio represented by Woodland Invest which exceeds 1000 ha in size but is spread out across the country in different parcels, is excluded. This is the consequence of the Government’s curious insistence that only large landholdings that impact on specific communities should be targeted for action. It is the consequence of abandoning any land reform ambitions designed to dilute the current pattern of concentrated ownership and provide more opportunities for individuals and businesses to own land and invest in Scotland.
As I reported in my Who Owns Scotland 2024 report, the ownership of privately-owned land is becoming more concentrated as existing landowners acquire more land at a faster rate than other landowners such as Buccleuch downsize by selling land.
And so it is regrettable to note that the fears I expressed at the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee have indeed come to pass. The portfolio has not only been acquired by one single buyer but by Scotland’s third largest landowner, Gresham House.
Gresham House Forest Fund VI LP acquired the portfolio on 7 August 2025. The price was not disclosed with the consideration given as “implementation of missives”, an issue that I will be blogging further about soon.
This acquisition, together with the purchase of the Griffin Estate for £145 million (reported on this blog on 1 August) now means that Gresham House owns more land than Buccleuch Estates.
From third largest landowner in Scotland, it jumps to to second with a total of at least 66,879 ha (there is more – I just haven’t yet located it all). Buccleuch Estates Ltd own around 65,000 ha.
This statistic will be confirmed in early 2027 once I have completed the review of all land sales in 2025 (I check once a year so task will not be complete until 31 December 2026).
It looks like the ownership of privately-owned land in Scotland continues to become more and more concenterated in fewr and fewer hands.
NOTES
[1] See Column 45 in Official Report of 3 Dec 2024 meeting here
Andy…. thank you for all your hard work …standing guard and highlighting the hidden usually foreign investors intent on plundering Scotland it seems at a faster and faster rate. You have to wonder what the SG is thinking and doing to protect our land…if anything.
Reading your book….The Poor Had NO LAWYERS..WHO OWNS SCOTLAND (AND HOW THEY GOT IT). Depressing so far. No-one seems to care about our ‘richest treasure’..not even our government ..except Andy Wightman.
To say that the subject is a maze of hidden laws, misrepresentations and outright GREED is putting it simply. I do not know how you keep abreast of all the tricks and devious games played by these hidden entities …who seek to make money out of our country and acquire power in the so doing.
We need RUTHLESS controls to stop the theft of our children’s inheritance. Stop the amount that investors can obtain and the land they have managed to grab…tax it to the hilt until it is no longer worthwhile robbing Scotland. Make Scotland’s land untouchable. The sooner our country is independent the better.
For OUR Scotland and her weans.