Ownership of Land

     The ownership of land in the islands has always been a contentious issue. From the competing claims to the Western Isles by the Scottish and Norwegian kings, to the relatively modern land-raids of the 1920s, the land which provides food, shelter, and employment for the people of the isles has frequently been the cause of conflict. As in other parts of the Highlands and Islands, the people of this area suffered dispossession and hardship during the Highland Clearances, and many left the islands to settle in other parts of the world. The clan lands passed from the community to being the private property of landlords, and with few exceptions they have remained so.

    Most of the estates in the Western Isles, though privately owned, are under crofting tenure, that is to say tenant crofters have agricultural, grazing, and housing rights which leave the landlord with little real control apart from some fishing, shooting, and mineral rights. Parts of Harris, Benbecula, Barra, and Vatersay are owned by the Scottish Office Agriculture & Fisheries Department (SOAFD), a situation dating from a time when the government purchased land to enable the creation of crofts in order to assist the relief of hunger and unemployment resulting from the lack of access to land by the local people. Some of these land settlements were made as late as the 1920s. 'A Land fit for heroes' was promised to servicemen returning from the first World War. The government however withdrew their promises and in some instances the land was taken by force by returning servicemen.