News that the Assynt Foundation plans to establish new crofts on its land in north-west Sutherland is to be welcomed.
The body was established in advance of the landmark community land buy-out of the Glencanisp and Drumrunie Estates in June 2005, from the Vestey family. The provisions of the 2003 Scottish Land Reform Act, gave the local community around Lochinver six months to raise the money, during which time the sale Vesteys could not proceed with the sale.
The 44,000 acres includes the magnificent mountains of Suilven, Canisp, Cul Mor and Cul Beag and a traditional Victorian hunting Lodge, Glencanisp Lodge.
The foundation should not be confused with the Assynt Crofters' Trust (ACT) up the road. This second body was created by the 100 or so crofters who effectively launched the modern community land movement by buying the 21,000 acre North Lochinver Estate from a Swedish bank 12 years earlier.
Much of the land the foundation now owns was cleared of people early in the 19th century. The Napier Commission of Inquiry (into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands) set up in 1883, heard evidence from those who could still name around 50 such human settlements in the Parish of Assynt decades earlier.
Many ended up on the inhospitable rocky coastal strip north of Lochinver where crofts were created in 13 townships. This is now ACT land.
The Assynt Foundation deserves material public support for its new croft initiative, from the likes of the Scottish Land Fund.
There have already been calls for “explicit policies” which make possible the wider resettlement of land which lost its people during the clearances.
It would be a powerful symbol of progress in a Scotland where these dark times are still recalled in the empty Highland landscape.
But it is not enough just to argue that would be collectively therapeutic to a people living with a cruel history.
Resettlement would have to serve a positive purpose. New crofts or small holdings, would be unlikely to make a big contribution to food production. They certainly shouldn’t just be about rural housing development, although an emphasis on self-build projects could have potential.
Fresh thinking is needed to develop a new flexible model. This should have at its heart a major emphasis on revitalisation of the environment, to make good the barren wastes of clearance. That is the challenge.
As a first step, Holyrood’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee should launch an investigation into how best to return people to the cleared land and updating the land settlement legislation of a century ago.
Community Land Scotland could be asked to prepare an initial report. It is known to be working on the subject already. Inclusion in a programme of government would be the ultimate goal.
If it is shown to work on community-owned land, it will be time to look elsewhere. It wouldn’t reverse the clearances, but might help lift their shadow just a little - land reform worthy of the name.
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