…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
It is twelve years since I last published comprehensive statistics on who owns Scotland. With a Land Reform Bill going through Parliament, I though it might be helpful to bring the data up to date. There are obvious connections between
Continue readingOn 19 February, the Chief Executive of Scottish Land and Estates (the body representing 1351 landowners owning 29% of Scotland) wrote the following in his weekly newsletter to SLE members. Mr McAdam’s grievance stemmed from the fact that the Scottish
Continue readingGuest Blog by Morten Nielsen, Aarhus University, Denmark (1) Associate professor Morten Nielsen is a Danish anthropologist currently in the Department of Culture and Society at Aarhus University. Based on empirical research carried out in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and
Continue readingFollowing the previous blog which highlighted problems wuth the SRUC report “Family Esates and Rural Resiliance”, I am pleased to publish the following letters written by Dr Iain MacKinnon to Professor Bob Webb, Principal and Chief Executive of SRUC and
Continue readingA report was published today by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) entitled Family Estates and Rural Resiliance. It contains the findings from a series of 23 interviews with landowners of so-called “family estates”. The report contains a few interesting observations but
Continue readingAs someone engaged in asking questions about land and its ownership, I have always been aware of the paucity of academic study of land tenure and ownership. That striking absence has, in part, motivated my ongoing investigations. So it
Continue readingOne of the first serious books I ever read (my 1982 John Donald hardback edition sits on the shelf beside me) was James Hunter’s The Making of the Crofting Community. It is a mark of Hunter’s brilliance that his
Continue readingWestwater plantation in Dumfries-shire – owned by a landowner in Surrey and granted over £1 million in Scottish forestry grants. Last year I was commissioned by the Forest Policy Group to undertake research into who owns Scotland’s forests. The report
Continue readingToday, an organisation called Greenspace Scotland launched what they claim is a world first in mapping the location, extent and type of greenspace across all of Scotland’s urban settlements. [broken link Oct 2024]“No other country has mapped its greenspace in
Continue readingThe Liberal Democrats have just published an interesting policy discussion paper on land taxes available here. I am delighted to see this thinking emerging from one of the UK coalition partners in Government and hope that the Scottish party plays
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