Crofting () is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production peculiar to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock. In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern Isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland.
History Origins and history before 1886 Crofting communities were a product of the Highland Clearances (though individual crofts had existed before the clearances). Previously, Highland agriculture was based on farms or , which had common grazing and arable open fields operated on the run rig system. An individual might have between five and ten families as tenants. As landowners sought to increase the income from their lands, the first step was the removal of the tacksmen. They were steadily eliminated over the last quarter of the 18th century. A tacksman (a member of the , sometimes described as 'gentry' in English) was the holder of a lease or tack from the landowner. Where a lease was for a , the tacksman usually sublet to the farming tenants and may have provided some management oversight. Tacksmen were integral to the trade in black cattle out of the Highlands, providing an important role in the overall Highland economy. By preventing this section of society from sub-letting, the landlords obtained all of the rent paid by those who worked the land. Secondly, landowners replaced the older farming methods with pastoral systems, with leases being auctioned off to the highest bidder. In early cases, these new farms raised cattle. Much more common was the introduction of extensive sheep farms. Both required the eviction of the tenants of each . In many clearances, the tenants of inland farms were moved to crofting communities in coastal areas, often on poorer quality land. This type of clearance was carried out mostly until the 1820s.
Croft work was hard, back-breaking work which yielded a subsistence living. Aside from hay and oats, usually root vegetables, potatoes or cabbages were grown and peat would be cut by hand and left outside in various characteristic patterns of stacks to dry so as to serve later for fuel or sometimes for bedding for animals. Most crofters had sheep to shear and lamb. Some crofters had the care of small numbers of cattle.
The crofts created by clearance were not intended to support all the needs of those who lived there and consequently were restricted in size to a few acres of arable land with surrounding shared grazing. Landlords intended their crofting tenants to work in various industries, such as fishing or kelp. A contemporary estimate was that a crofter needed to carry out 200 days of work away from his croft in order to avoid destitution. In the second half of the 19th century, many crofters provided a substantial migrant workforce, especially for lowland farms.
Crofting communities in the period 1846–56 were badly hit by the Highland Potato Famine. The small arable plots had meant that the potato was an essential crop, due to its high productivity. The arrival of potato blight (and the collapse of the kelp industry a few years before) made some crofting communities inviable. This gave rise to the second phase of the Highland Clearances, when many tenants left the Highlands, often emigrating. In 1852, in response to the poverty in the Highlands, Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir John McNeill founded the Highland and Island Emigration Society, designed to save poor families from starvation by emigration to Australia.
In 1883, the Napier Commission was established. Though its recommendations were not accepted, the problem of poverty and insecurity of tenure in the Highlands was investigated. Consequent on this, the first Scottish crofting legislation of 1886 was enacted.
History 1886 onwards The Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 (49 & 50 Vict. c. 29) provided for security of tenure, a key issue as most crofters remain tenants. The Act encouraged tenants to improve the land under their control, as it ensured that the control could be transferred within families and passed to future generations.
Crofters were given the right to purchase their individual crofts in 1976. In 2003, as part of the Land Reform Act, crofting community bodies were provided with the right to purchase eligible croft land associated with the local crofting community.
In 1974 the Laidhay Croft Museum near Dunbeath in Caithness was opened to preserve and enhance a two hundred year old thatched crofting longhouse with its agricultural buildings (barn and stables). The home is fully furnished and there are displayed farm and stable equipment.
In 2018 a section of the Sutherland Estate was bought out by a crofting community initiative, Garbh Allt Community Initiative Estate. The area amounted to 1,214 hectares (3,000 acres) of land and included the crofting townships of Gartymore, Portgower, Marrel and West Helmsdale. The £250,000 purchase money was made available in the form of two major contributions. These were: £273,000 from the Scottish government funded Scottish Land Fund; and £29,918 Beatrice Partnership Fund (a body connected to Beatrice windfarm in the Outer Moray Firth). The transfer of ownership was in favour of crofters, some of whom were descendants of people removed from the Sutherland Estate two centuries previously.
From the 1990s, a rural planning scheme in western West Lothian, central Scotland, borrowed the concept of subdividing land into holdings under the name 'Lowland Crofting'. To date, ten farms have entered the scheme, creating over 100 crofts along with extenside amenity woodlands, walks, and nature areas, with the best land retained in farming use.
Statutory codes
Statutes A key feature of crofting tenure is the highly developed network of legislation that has evolved since 1886. Crofting has been established and regulated in accordance with a series of statutes that have varied over time.Derek Flyn; Keith Graham Crofting Law (First Edition) Edinburgh University Press (2017) The following six statutes have been repealed: the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Small Landholders and Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1931;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1961;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 and the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976.Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 In 1993 there was a consolidation of the legislation into the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993.Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023
the following four statutes together comprise the code of legislation applicable to crofting: the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993; the Crofting Reform etc. Act 2007;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010;Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023 the Crofting (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2013.Contents legislation.gov.uk Retrieved 3 September 2023
Proposals for law reform The Scottish government, due to the acknowledged complexity of the statutory codes, had a public consultation open until 2 September 2024 as to possible ways of simplifying the law.
The Crofting Register The Crofting Register is a public record available for consultation for free. It is kept by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. As at 12 September 2023 there were 9288 registered crofts and 335 registered common grazings. Registration can be voluntary but is compulsory in some circumstances. The Keeper offers online guidance in the form of a list as to events that trigger a mandatory registration. Registered boundaries of crofts are shown on a map and they are definitive.Section 3ZA(2)(b) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, added by the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 First registration may give rise to boundary disputes. The Scottish Land Court will determine the boundary and in the case of insufficient evidence has the power to fix the boundary where it thinks is appropriate.Section 53A of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, added by section 18 of the Crofting Reform etc Act 2007
Crofting terms and management A crofting tenancy is one from year to year but it carries security of tenure under the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 and in practice may therefore continue indefinitely whilst the tenant fulfils the terms of the tenancy. This reflects the basic protection granted in 1886. Other retained key features are now also contained in the consolidation of the 1993 Act. These are a right to compensation for improvements to the land, the right to pay a fair rent, and the right of bequest of the tenancy to a spouse or his family's next generation.See under "the Act" in article Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886
A valid crofting agreement can only be made with the prior consent of the Crofting Commission.Section 23(3) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 Croft tenants are subject to the statutory conditions of tenure contained in section 5 and Schedule 2 of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993. Additionally, since 2010 they are subject to the statutory duties.Contained in sections 5AA, 5B and 5C of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 These apply to all tenancies whether held under a written agreement or an oral agreement. The written terms are invalid in so far as they are inconsistent with the statutory provisions.Section 5 of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 Grazings regulations prevail over the terms of a tenancy agreement.Section 49(8) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 These are regulations created by the crofters to manage their common grazings. The Scottish Government offers Guidance and a Regulations template to assist in the creation of rules. The template draft has been approved by the Crofting Commission. As of 12 June 2023 applications can be made online to the Crofting Commission in respect of assignations, decroftings, divisions and sublets.
A person taking an interest from the landlord takes subject to the rights of the crofter. In a case where almost a century had elapsed since the creation of an interest by the landlord but where there had been no formal resumption by permission obtained from the commission or the Scottish Land Court, the tenant was able to reclaim as part of the croft land that had been fenced off and supposedly taken away by such a transaction.Smith v Murray 1990 SLCR 90; 4 WLUK 205; C.L.Y. 5707
Requirements Tenants and owner-occupier crofters are required to comply with a range of duties specified in sections 5AA to 5C and 19C of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 as amended. There is a duty to be ordinarily resident within 32 km of the croft. If the croft is the sole dwelling and the crofter's family are residents while the croft is away this would probably be accepted as ordinarily resident. Other circumstances involving other places of residence would require to be assessed individually. In addition to the duty of residential tenants and owner-occupiers crofters are required to ensure the croft is cultivated, maintained and not neglected or misused.
Practice Characteristics of crofting