The Highland Line: has the Pairc saga raised more questions than it's answered about land reform legislation?

The absentee landowner of the Pairc Estate on Lewis had claimed the Scottish Government was forcing him to sell his island in revenge for the Highland Clearances. But he is now willing to strike a deal over the sale of his family's estate to his crofting tenants.

Next Thursday the community in the south east of Lewis will decide whether they want to accept the offer made by Barry Lomas, the Warwickshire-based accountant who owns the 26,800 acre Pairc Estate.

It would see the crofter-led Pairc Trust take over most of the estate and have a share in the lease of wind energy developments on the land. But they would not get a site in Gravir earmarked for an electricity subsea cable converter station, if SSE ever stops increasing its multi million pound estimates for cost of the interconnector.

It is quite a turnaround given that last year Mr Lomas of Royal Leamington Spa was in the Court of Session arguing that his human rights were being infringed by the Scottish Government.

This was because ministers had decided to support the crofting community in its bid to buy the land under the land reform legislation, introduced by the previous Labour/LibDem Scottish Executive.

Under section three of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act this meant the crofters, with ministerial approval,  could move to buy the land at a price set by an independent valuer,  whether the owner wanted to sell or not.

This provision was once famously compared by a Tory MSP, to the land grabs in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. So it had been a matter of time before there was a legal challenge on the grounds of human rights. Not everybody in the Scottish Government machine was always totally confident of victory.

But a year ago three judges, headed by the Lord President, Lord Gill, dismissed the appeal from Mr Lomas.

They ruled that ministers had to balance the harm or damage to the landowner against the benefit of the buyout to the wider public and crofting economy. The weight given to the landowner's interest was "pre-eminently a matter for them", the ministers.

"On that point, the landowner's entitlement to compensation may be a material consideration," Lord Gill had added.

Although there was scope for resumed legal wrangling at Stornoway Sheriff Court, the road was opening up for the Scottish Government to proceed to an enforced purchase,  in what would have been the first "hostile" buyout.

Now it looks as though that can be avoided if the purchase is agreed on a voluntary,  if hardly amicable basis.

It has been a long road. Almost 400 people currently live on the estate which covers a similar land area as Edinburgh and embraces 11 townships and 208 crofts.

In 2004 the community, whose population had fallen from 4,000 to 400 in the last 100 years, voted in favour of a buyout from Mr Lomas, who was reluctant to sell. He then set up a 75-year lease with a subsidiary company which signed a deal with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to erect a £200m wind farm.  Ministers went to the Scottish Land Court, but it ruled such "interposed leases" were legal so they then had to legislate to close the loophole.

This all took several years. In the middle of this SSE sold the energy rights to International Power which plans a smaller renewable energy scheme.

Now it is up to the local community to decide. Do they accept the negotiated terms for a voluntary transfer, and takeover the estate, at a price which is likely to higher than that set by an independent valuer? Or do they refuse and ask the government to proceed with the hostile buyout?

Whatever they decide, it is clear that after nine years section three of the land reform act has not exactly worked effectively. That is something that the Scottish Government's working group, and indeed the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster, should now address in their consideration of land reform.