A WOMAN who helped set up the original Scottish Crofters' Union has been named chairwoman of the organisation which replaced it.

Fiona Mandeville is taking over as leader of the Scottish Crofters Federation after the departure of former chairman Derek Flyn.

Ms Mandeville was brought up on the family croft at Waterloo, on the shores of Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye, and helped set up the Scottish Crofters Union in 1985.

She worked for the SCU for 15 years until she left to fulfil a long-held ambition to go sailing, and also became editor of the SCF's members' magazine The Crofter.

She said: "When Jim Hunter and I opened the Scottish Crofters Union office in Broadford in the early days of 1986, I never for a moment expected to become chair of the organisation.

"I feel very humble to be following in the footsteps of Derek Flyn, and other estimable chairs before him."

She added that the most important issues facing crofters are the start of a new phase of the Common Agriculture Policy and the Scotland Rural Development Programme, and land reform legislation.

She said: "Land Reform is a national priority and crofters have a significant stake in land management. It is a time of transformation, time for a new way of using our land.

"Crofting demonstrates an appropriate system of land tenure that should be rolled out across Scotland."