BY and large there has been little movement in the Top Twenty chart of landowners in Scotland for more than a century.
The families which owned great acreages in 1875, the last occasion when a comprehensive land register was compiled, are still up there.
The chart toppers 121 years ago included the Buccleuchs, Atholls, Seafields, Sutherlands, and Cameron of Lochiel.
This self-perpetuating elite remains prominent today, according to a survey of land ownership in the new book Who Owns Scotland Now?
It confirms that dukes, lords and other landed gentry continue to cling to vast estates.
But the update also reveals subtle changes have taken place since John McEwen's book, Who Owns Scotland? published in 1977.
A comparison of both books suggests that in the future pension funds and environment groups will become as entrenched as the aristocrats in the Scottish land stakes.
Some of Scotland's best known lairds - including the Duke of Roxburgh and Duke of Argyll, and Lords Cowdray, Stair, and Lovet - have already dropped out of the Top Twenty.
And, despite the idea that Scotland is being bought by foreign hordes, just one foreigner is included in the latest landowners' chart.
Dutch businessmen Paul van Vlissingen, who already possessed Letterewe and Fisherfield, has come in at number 16 - thanks to extending his Wester Ross empire to 87,000 acres.
In 1992 his company Catherijne BV bought a neighbouring 22,000 acres at Kinlochewe from Colonel William Henry Whitbread, whose family hinted subsequently that the sale was partly due to losses suffered as a Lloyd's Name.
The Duke of Buccleuch, who headed the list in 1970, remains by far Scotland's largest private landowner, with some 260,000 acres. His Borders estates have been in the family for 200 years, and his personal worth is estimated at #400m.
Seven others still in the Top Twenty, some 26 years on, include the Duke of Atholl, whose personal fortune is estimated at #140m. He was criticised last year for charging motorists #5 to drive through his estate on a potholed road. The others are: Captain Alwyn Farquharson, who lives in Mull but has 125,000 acres on Deeside and Argyll, with his Invercauld estate separated from the Queen's Balmoral estate by the River Dee; the Duchess of Westminster; the Earl of Seafield, and Edmund Vestey, the richest person in the Highlands with #155m, coming from United International, the huge meat empire founded by his family; the Countess of Sutherland, and Sir Donald Cameron, the chief of Clan Cameron.
Some of the traditional lairds have reduced rather than increased land ownership stakes since McEwen's much-needed account of land ownership in a changing country.
The Forestry Commission - with 1,600,000 acres - is listed as the number one landowner in Scotland in Auslan Cramb's update.
Substantial inroads have also been made since the 'Seventies by the Scottish Office agricultural department, National Trust for Scotland, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Scottish Natural Heritage.
Top Twenty newcomers include the merchant banker Robert Fleming, at Glen Etive, and, on Islay, Lord Margadale, who was memorably described by an MP in the House of Commons as ``well-known to the Nature Conservancy Council and other bodies as the owner of an estate notorious for decades for the ruthless killing of wild birds.''
The Wills tobacco family - second only to the Duke of Buccleuch in landlordism in 1970 - has fallen from the charts, presumably underlining recent changes in ownership because of unprecedented losses suffered by Lloyd's Names in the early 1990s.
In November, one Wills member sold 48,000-acre Corrour Estate to Lisbet Koerner, heiress to the giant Sewdish packaging firm Tetra Park, and her husband Joseph. They will be absentee landlords of the Highland estate.
The Lovat family has also been disposing of land. The 19,500-acre Lovat Fraser estate was recently broken up and sold, with spectacular Beaufort Castle near Beauly, Inverness-shire, going to Mrs Ann Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach bus company.
THE TOP 20 LANDOWNERS
IN 1970*
OwnersEstatesAcres
Duke of BuccleuchBuccleuch Ests277,000
Wills FamilyWills Ests263,000
Lord SeafieldSeafield Ests185,000
Countess of
SutherlandSutherland Ests158,000
Duke of AthollAtholl Ests130,000
Capt. A A C
FarquharsonInvercauld Ests119,000
Duke of WestminsterWestminster Ests113,000
British Aluminium LtdBritish Aluminium
Ests110,000
Lord StairStair Ests110,000
Sir D CameronLochiel Ests98,000
Duke of RoxburghRoxburgh Ests96,000
E H VesteyVestey Ests93,000
S Uist Estates LtdS Uist Ests92,000
Lord CowdrayCowdray Ests88,000
Liberton Properties
LtdBig House Ests85,000
Uig Crofters Estates
Benmore Estates LtdBenmore Ests79,000
Lord LovatLovat Ests76,000
Morrison Family
(distillers)Islay Ests75,000
Duke of ArgyllArgyll Ests74,000
Stornoway TrustStornoway Ests65,000
*From Who Owns Scotland? by John McEwen
TOP 20 LANDOWNERS IN
SCOTLAND IN 1996*
Acres
1Forestry Commission1,600,000
2Duke of Buccleuch/Lord Dalkeith270,000
Four estates in the Borders
3Scottish Office Agriculture Department260,000
90% crofting land
4National Trust for Scotland190,000
Includes 75,000-acre Mar Lodge
5Alcan Highland Estates135,000
Land used for electricity generation
6Duke of Atholl, Sarah Troughton130,000
Estates around Dunkeld/Blair Atholl
7Capt. Alwyn Farquharson125,000
Invercauld on Deeside/Smaller estate, Argyll
8Duchess of Westminster, Lady Mary Grosvenor120,000
Grosvenor Sporting Estates, Sutherland
9Earl of Seafield105,000
Seafield Estates, Speyside
10Crown Estate Commission100,000
Three main estates, including Glenlivet
11Edmund Vestey and four sons100,000
Assynt, mountain property
12South Uist Estate Co (syndicate)92,000
Sporting estate with 900 crofts
13Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel, and family90,000
Sporting/forestry centred on Achnacarry Castle
14Countess of Sutherland, Lord Strahnaver90,000
Sporting estates in Sutherland
15Royal Society for the Protection of Birds87,400
52 separate reserves
16Paul van Vlissingen87,000
Letterewe `wilderness', Wester Ross
17Scottish Natural Heritage84,400
Nature reserves
18Robin Fleming and family80,000
Blackmount/Glen Etive
19Hon Chas Pearson77,000
Dunecht
20Lord Margadale73,000
Islay
*From Who Owns Scotland Now? by Auslan Cramb
MAJOR FOREIGN
LANDOWNERS IN 1996
Acres
1Paul van Vlissingen87,000
Letterewe `wilderness', Wester Ross
2Unknown Malaysian businessman
(Andras company)70,000
Glenavon, Cairngorms (40,000)
also Braulen, Inverness-shire (30,000)
3Mohammed bin Raschid al Maktoum,
Arab billionaire63,000
Glomach, West Benula, Inverinate,
Wester Ross
4Kjeld Kirk-Christiansen, head of Lego,
Denmark50,000
Strathconon, Mid Ross
5Profs Joseph and Lisbet Koerner,
Swedish Tetra Pak heiress48,000
Corrour, Lochaber
6Stanton Avery, US billionaire30,000
Dunbeath, Caithness
7Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods30,000
Balnagowan, Ross and Cromarty
8Urs Schwarzenberg, Swiss businessman26,000
Ben Alder, Inverness-shire
9Count Knuth, Danish aristocrat20,000
Ben Loyal, Sutherland
10His Excellency Mahdi Mohammed Al Tajir20,000
United Arab Emirates
Blackford, Perthshire
11Prof Ian Roderick Macneil of Barra,
American clan chief17,200
Barra and islands
12Eric Delwart, Belgian16,000
Kilchoan, Knoydart
13Lucan Ardenberg, Dane10,000
Pitmain, Inverness-shire
14Marlin Maruma, German spiritual artist7400
Island of Eigg
15Fred Olsen, Norwegian shipping magnate4000
Forest Estate, Galloway
16Dr Sybrand and Feya Heerma van Voss, Dutch4000
Blar a' Chaoruinn, Fort William
17Hans Depre, Belgian businessman4000
Clova, near Lumsden, Aberdeenshire
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