The future for crofting

kfpben · Sep 28, 2021

I spent a week travelling through the Western Isles recently. Skye, Harris and Lewis. As a farmer you can’t help but see a place through an agricultural lense.

I found the crofting set up very interesting, endless small holdings of 2-15 acres, some with common grazing on the moor or hill ground. I believe most of these are rented off a landlord, rather than owned though I stand to be corrected. I couldn’t really get my head round the economics of it. 10 ewes and a couple of cows seemed normal. The fencing some of the moors alone went on for miles and must have cost tens of thousands of pounds. Fanks every couple of miles (though some are very old). Mowing fields of half an acre. Stacks of a dozen mini round bales.
How do folk justify it?
I mean even as a hobby surely it would be quite an expensive one. We’re not talking about pony paddocks in Surrey, these all seemed to be miniature farms.

On Skye the crofts seemed quite well presented, no doubt supported by the keen tourist trade on the island.
The north of Lewis however was a very different story. Very little tourist activity and a much poorer feel to the area. In parts it felt more like crofting for self sufficiency or survival, rather than as a business or a hobby. Abandoned crofts and houses were everywhere.

To those with more knowledge than me- what’s the future of crofting/farming in these areas?

Guleesh · Sep 28, 2021

Please send more money.

Crex · Sep 28, 2021

toquark said:
Crofting is very very very highly subsidised.

Well it's all relative. The only 'extra' subsidies crofting agriculture gets is CAGS, which gives a 60% grant for some of the endless fencing @kfpben saw,and the fanks, and a few other infrastructure bits and bobs.

toquark · Sep 28, 2021

kfpben said:
I spent a week travelling through the Western Isles recently. Skye, Harris and Lewis. As a farmer you can’t help but see a place through an agricultural lense.

I found the crofting set up very interesting, endless small holdings of 2-15 acres, some with common grazing on the moor or hill ground. I believe most of these are rented off a landlord, rather than owned though I stand to be corrected. I couldn’t really get my head round the economics of it. 10 ewes and a couple of cows seemed normal. The fencing some of the moors alone went on for miles and must have cost tens of thousands of pounds. Fanks every couple of miles (though some are very old). Mowing fields of half an acre. Stacks of a dozen mini round bales.
How do folk justify it?
I mean even as a hobby surely it would be quite an expensive one. We’re not talking about pony paddocks in Surrey, these all seemed to be miniature farms.

On Skye the crofts seemed quite well presented, no doubt supported by the keen tourist trade on the island.
The north of Lewis however was a very different story. Very little tourist activity and a much poorer feel to the area. In parts it felt more like crofting for self sufficiency or survival, rather than as a business or a hobby. Abandoned crofts and houses were everywhere.

To those with more knowledge than me- what’s the future of crofting/farming in these areas?

Crofting is very very very highly subsidised. The government seems content to support it, like they do many activities deemed “culturally important” though I would suggest that culture will change as many freehold crofts are going to southern buyers.

Crex · Sep 28, 2021

The future of crofting is almost entirely reliant on their being some form of continuing subsidy, either to support the retention of folk in this part of the world, or for the environment benefits.

New Puritan · Sep 28, 2021

Thanks for this thread @kfpben - like you I have spent time going round all the same places looking at the farming up there. Part of me would quite like to give it a go but my immediate family were unconvinced. There was a place called Northton on Harris that looked a very nice set-up. I'd be very interested to hear how anyone on here from round that way gets on. Can incomers buy or rent crofts? And if they can are they treated with disdain by the locals?

hoff135 · Sep 28, 2021

Anyone can buy a croft. To rent one you need to be approved by the crofting commission. There isn't a lot of croft land on the market but its gone from largely ignored to the point where people will kill each other to get it. Its very much the in thing with the rich/lifestyle buyers from the city. Locals can't compete. At lot of it its small scale but know plenty running 500ewes+, plus cows on croft land.

kfpben · Sep 28, 2021

We stayed three nights in Mangurstudh on the western side of Lewis and I heard that most of the crofts had sub-let their crofts/fields to the ‘big farmer’ with 15 Angus cows plus followers (fantastic looking animals they were too).
It seems to make more sense to the external observer, though I’m sure many would disagree.

kfpben · Sep 28, 2021

hoff135 said:
Anyone can buy a croft. To rent one you need to be approved by the crofting commission. There isn't a lot of croft land on the market but its gone from largely ignored to the point where people will kill each other to get it. Its very much the in thing with the rich/lifestyle buyers from the city. Locals can't compete. At lot of it its small scale but know plenty running 500ewes+, plus cows on croft land.

Plenty of abandoned looking crofts on Lewis though? Both land and houses.
I don’t expect the northern half of Lewis is too popular with lifestyle buyers being flat, boggy and incredibly windy!

glasshouse · Sep 28, 2021

kfpben said:
I spent a week travelling through the Western Isles recently. Skye, Harris and Lewis. As a farmer you can’t help but see a place through an agricultural lense.

I found the crofting set up very interesting, endless small holdings of 2-15 acres, some with common grazing on the moor or hill ground. I believe most of these are rented off a landlord, rather than owned though I stand to be corrected. I couldn’t really get my head round the economics of it. 10 ewes and a couple of cows seemed normal. The fencing some of the moors alone went on for miles and must have cost tens of thousands of pounds. Fanks every couple of miles (though some are very old). Mowing fields of half an acre. Stacks of a dozen mini round bales.
How do folk justify it?
I mean even as a hobby surely it would be quite an expensive one. We’re not talking about pony paddocks in Surrey, these all seemed to be miniature farms.

On Skye the crofts seemed quite well presented, no doubt supported by the keen tourist trade on the island.
The north of Lewis however was a very different story. Very little tourist activity and a much poorer feel to the area. In parts it felt more like crofting for self sufficiency or survival, rather than as a business or a hobby. Abandoned crofts and houses were everywhere.

To those with more knowledge than me- what’s the future of crofting/farming in these areas?

Its a part time hobby
Same as 1000 acre arable

hoff135 · Sep 28, 2021

kfpben said:
Plenty of abandoned looking crofts on Lewis though? Both land and houses.
I don’t expect the northern half of Lewis is too popular with lifestyle buyers being flat, boggy and incredibly windy!

Not been there myself but perhaps not. However the right location is very much in demand.

A couple of people got crofts in my area in the past few years and have since given up after realising that its more hassle than its worth.

kfpben · Sep 28, 2021

New Puritan said:
Thanks for this thread @kfpben - like you I have spent time going round all the same places looking at the farming up there. Part of me would quite like to give it a go but my immediate family were unconvinced. There was a place called Northton on Harris that looked a very nice set-up. I'd be very interested to hear how anyone on here from round that way gets on. Can incomers buy or rent crofts? And if they can are they treated with disdain by the locals?

There looked like quite a sizeable salt marsh style grazing set up at Northton.
That end of Harris was beautiful.
I imagine if you learnt Gaelic, attended church and worked the croft well people would accept you.
All the islanders I knew at Uni were great. The locals I met last week were very friendly, though I do have passable spoken Gaelic which if nothing else is an unusual conversation starter for an Englishman!

Macsky · Sep 28, 2021

Many of the crofts on the west coast/islands were designed by the landlords in the first place to accommodate folk displaced from the hills to make way for large sheep farmers(they were deemed a better bet for an income off the land), and be small enough NOT to support a family so that the landlords would have ample cheap labour to help with the very lucrative kelp harvest(they did their level best to keep folk from emigrating initially), which sort of worked (people weren’t dying of starvation) while that market was good, but tariffs on Mediterranean barrila (which did the same job as kelp) were later lifted and the bottom fell out of the kelp market and the landlords then couldn’t get rid of their people fast enough, roll on the clearances.
‘The Making of the Crofting Community’ by James Hunter is well worth a read.

New Puritan · Sep 28, 2021

kfpben said:
There looked like quite a sizeable salt marsh style grazing set up at Northton.
That end of Harris was beautiful.
I imagine if you learnt Gaelic, attended church and worked the croft well people would accept you.
All the islanders I knew at Uni were great. The locals I met last week were very friendly, though I do have passable spoken Gaelic which if nothing else is an unusual conversation starter for an Englishman!

It's really beautiful round there, though admittedly we've only been there in the summer. The machair is a fantastic landscape - we've walked round that area numerous times and it never ceases to appeal. My daughter was sufficiently impressed she is learning Gaelic on duolingo and has also taken up highland dancing. This is over several visits over the last few years. If it was down to me and her we'd move there tomorrow but we're not the only decision makers (unfortunately or luckily depending on perspective...).

Dry Rot · Sep 29, 2021

There is a steady inflow of migrants from the south -- and an equally steady exit as incomers come to realise the distance, the weather, the midges, local way of life, etc. The Scottish Highlands IS a foreign country from England and the customs and the people are different. And it is this unique way of life that keeps crofting going.

There are crofts of 1/2 an acre and crofts of over 1,000 acres, and "crofts" with no land at all called cottars. I don't know if it's still the case, I think not, but it used to be possible for a crofter to buy his croft for ten times the rent. One crofter in Caithness bought his very substantial croft on that basis, promptly sold it to a forestry company, then had to move to the other end of the country to escape the reaction! (He may be on here!). But I think the law was promptly changed so it couldn't happen again.

The rent, by the way, is for the unimproved land and any buildings, fences, structures, etc. are owned by the crofter. So when a croft changes hands, there will be a "transfer fee" for the tenancy, then a lump sum for the fixtures. One aspiring crofter asked what this fee was (about £30,000 in his case) as all he wanted was the tenancy. "Oh, that'll be the solicitor's fees" was the joking reply. Crofting has rightly be called "a small piece of land surrounded by legislation". I live on a former croft and I won't be putting it back into crofting, regardless of the substantial grants.

Lazy Sod · Sep 29, 2021

What are Fanks? Google only referred to the idiots way of saying Thanks

kfpben · Sep 29, 2021

Lazy Sod said:
What are Fanks? Google only referred to the idiots way of saying Thanks

Fixed sheep handling systems

BiomassMan · Sep 29, 2021

We bought a 5.5 acre bare land owner-occupied croft in Caithness two years ago and moved up from Derbyshire, I was working on a friends dairy farm and wanted to somewhere of our own.

Now we have got a small dairy flock of sheep selling milk to a localish cheese maker. The locals have been great as they have said it makes a change to see someone moving up and actually trying to farm rather than building a big house and hoping to live the goodlife.

Mc115reed · Sep 29, 2021

Sounds like my kind of holiday driving round looking at farms and sheep

PSQ · Sep 29, 2021

kfpben said:
To those with more knowledge than me- what’s the future of crofting/farming in these areas?

I'd imagine that you'd either need to get a 2nd job, or 'milk the system for all it's worth'; or in the case of this "humble crofter" from Skye, both of the above:

The future for crofting

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page