Brian Wilson: Half of Scotland is owned by just 500 lairds

The North Harris buyout has been transformational building houses, creating jobs and supporting new businesses

I felt a blast from the past this week via an obituary for Sir Hereward Wake, who passed away at the decent age of 101. It may surprise you there was still a Hereward Wake in circulation, the moniker being more commonly associated with 1066 and all that.

Forty-odd years ago, in early West Highland Free Press days, I had the same reaction when Sir Hereward emerged as central figure in a drama which was manna from heaven for a radical newspaper that took a dim view of landlordism in general and its influence over local government in particular.

Sir Hereward had cut a deal with Lord Burton of Dochfour, chairman of Inverness County Council’s roads committee, to build a by-pass round Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in Harris at a cost of £80,000 – getting close to a million in today’s money. The public purse and Sir Hereward would split the bill. The single-track road in front of the Victorian pile was scarcely over-burdened with traffic and Sir Hereward only occasionally visited his vast Hebridean empire. Roads in Harris were primitive. The idea of spending public money on a by-pass, to protect Sir Hereward’s privacy, sparked outrage which I cheerfully encouraged.

By fruitful coincidence, Sir Hereward and Burton had attended Eton together and were members of Brooks’ Club, considerations which inspired Derek Cooper to versify: “About this by-pass, Burton/ Here’s something for the kitty/ A handsome cheque for forty thou’ to help things through committee/ Floreat Etona, See you in Brooks’ old swell/ God helps those who help themselves – and help us jolly well.”

The by-pass was abandoned and Sir Hereward retreated to his Northamptonshire estates.

New land body to reveal land owernship in Scotland

Fast forward to 2003, North Harris passed into community ownership and I was privileged to speak at the ceremony. This outcome, even a few years earlier, would have been unimaginable, I said. “North Harris, by virtue of its scale and history, was the epitome of private land ownership in the Hebrides, a fortress that would never crumble.”

Optimistically, I predicted that “the trickle of land reform is going to become a flood”. Alas, the flood has been delayed. Just 2.9 per cent of Scotland’s acreage is in community ownership and that has plateaued in recent years. The Scottish Land Fund is spending a fraction of its advertised £10 million budget, mainly on small, worthy projects that have little to do with land reform. The mechanisms do not exist for big ones to emerge.

Like all community buy-outs, North Harris has been transformational – building houses, creating jobs, supporting new businesses and generally doing things private landlordism has no interest in – because people acquire these estates for privacy, sport and status, which are all the wrong reasons.