A feasibility study into a possible community buy-out of the last large privately owned estate on the island of Harris is finally to get under way.
If given approval, the buyout of the near 30,000 acre Bays of Harris Estate would bring the vast bulk of Harris under community ownership, although there are still smaller private estates in the area.
The estate is effectively fragmented into three areas: much of the notoriously infertile and rocky east coast of the island from Tarbert south; Northton on the south west; and the island of Berneray across the Sound of Harris.
Harris has suffered from chronic depopulation, more than other islands.
In the four decades after the Second World War it lost more than 40 per cent of its population, and the haemorrhage continued between 1981 and 2001, with a 24 per cent decrease to 1984 residents. In 2011 it had just 1916, and deaths continue to outnumber births and new arrivals on the estate.
The feasibility study was voted for by nearly 700 residents two years ago, but it has been delayed until now by administrative and presentational problems.
Now funding has been secured and economist Steve Westbrook, who has carried out similar community feasibility work in the past, has been appointed to carry out the study.
The estate is owned by the Surrey-based Hitchcock family, who have agricultural businesses. They bought it for a reported £5000 after the death of Lord Leverhulme in 1925. The English industrialist, who founded Lever Brothers, was a major landowner on Harris.
The Hitchcocks have not commented about the buyout plans, but are now understood to be willing to discuss it with the islanders.
John Maher, the former drummer with the English punk band Buzzcocks, settled on the island 12 years ago. He now runs a specialist engineering business making high-performance air-cooled Volkswagen engines.
He is on the community steering group set up to examine the buyout option. He said "The current landlords don't live here. This study will let us know what the income and expenditure of the estate is. We have got to know whether it would be viable to take it over. But if there is profit, none of it is being invested here. It is going down to England. We just feel the community would be in a better position to use that money to help encourage people to stay here, or others to come and live in this part of Harris."
David Cameron, the Harris-based chairman of Community Land Scotland, the umbrella for Scotland's community buyouts, said it was excellent news that the Bays of Harris feasibility study would now proceed.
"This area has seen a severe decline in population, especially youngsters, and also reduction in services for many decades. Today wind turbines and business units are currently being constructed in the neighbouring community-owned North Harris, with similar proposals for the community of West Harris. If the people in the Bays decide that land ownership is also for them, I am sure that they too will create a better future for themselves."
The configuration of the estate is complicated. Although Berneray is far closer to the island of North Uist at just more than half a mile, and is now physically connected to it by a causeway, it was always know as "Berneray Harris".
This goes back to the days of the clans, when both islands were part of the Skye-based Macleod of Dunvegan's lands.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article