A former crofter is threatening to go to the European courts to get back the land his family has worked on for generations.

Jeremy Gow, 47, was told he no longer had rights over the four acres in Sutherland after the Crofting Com-mission terminated his tenancy last year, claiming he was no longer an active crofter.

The Angus-based antiques restorer is taking legal advice after he was deemed to be an absentee crofter. He said the Crofting Commission did not visit the land to discuss the case with him beforehand.

Mr Gow, who insisted he has been working on the land, said: "We are only talking four acres, and I defy anyone to farm or use my croft better than I have been doing for years.

"I have planted one of the acres with trees for firewood supply and had a horse on the land. The land was always available for use by a local crofter on an informal basis." He said the tenancy had been left to him in 1984 by his grandmother, who had held it since 1954. He had taken the croft house out of crofting tenure, and had bought it.

"I would have liked to have bought the land and passed it on to my children. I did have a right to buy but apparently can't now. I don't live here all the time but come up regularly at least once a month."

The land is owned by local crofters in the form of Melness Crofters Estate. In November 1995, the then absentee land owner of the Melness Estate, Michael Foljambe, agreed to hand over 10,700 acres to the crofters. Mr Gow said his four acres had gone back to the crofters, but he still wanted to challenge the decision of the Crofting Commission.

"As far as I understand, it has now gone beyond the Scottish Land Court, so it may be that I would have to take my case to Europe."

He added: "I know it would be expensive to go to Europe, so I am going to take legal advice." He said it was "a 21st-century land grab led by suits sitting in offices".

However, the Crofting Commission has a statutory duty to tackle absenteeism. One of its primary aims is to promote occupancy of crofts and active land use. It requires that crofters are deemed "absent crofters" if they live more than 20 miles away from their land.

Susan Walker, chairwoman of the Crofting Commission, said commissioners tried hard to work with crofters like Mr Gow to find a solution. She said they did not want to terminate tenancies, but to ensure crofters lived on or near their crofts.