Wild Land News no 69, Summer 2007

South Uist Buy-out Article

Danny Rafferty reports on the successful community purchase

South Uist's two highest hills, Hecla and Beinn Mhor, seen from the west.
Photo:John Rankin

On November the 30th 2006 South Uist Estates went into community ownership. The celebration ceilidh was, I thought, a curiously muted affair which might have had something to do with the weather that day - horrendous. The estate itself comprises all of South Uist, the island of Eriskay and half of Benbecula, over 90,000 acres, which is one of the largest landholdings in the United Kingdom. With over 900 crofts it is the largest crofting estate in the country.

For those who do not know South Uist it is geographically separate from Eriskay and Benbecula but linked by causeways. Over 20 miles from north to south it is 4 to 5 miles across. The west is basically flat with machair lands where fodder crops such as oats and rye are grown in the summer. Through the spine of the island is a range of hills rising to Ben More just above 2,000 feet. The east is steeper and generally much more rugged with waist-high heather and hidden steep-sided streams ready to waylay the unwary walker. Today most people live on the west side of Uist and that is where the main road and most of the facilities are. However there is plenty of evidence of human settlement on the east side from prehistoric souterrains and wheelhouses to the remains of villages cleared from the 18th century onwards and others that were abandoned early in the twentieth. The climate as you would expect is wet and windy, evidenced by the many lochs and streams. Unfortunately the watery ambience does not at times extend to the actual houses: we have no water as I write this, the price sometimes paid for a spell of good weather, a rise in the water table and a shifting of the pipes.

The estate has been run as a traditional sporting estate and was owned, I believe, by a syndicate of nine families. They ran the estate with a fairly light touch but did not actively promote development. The Land Reform Act passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2003 effectively devalued crofting estates in material terms by giving crofters the right-to-buy the entire estate - with or without the agreement of the owners. Inspired thereafter with a mixture of altruism and financial acumen the owners were minded to sell, began to speak to a local group and the buyout was completed last year with support from the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Lottery, SNH, the local council and a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Now that the estate is in community ownership let us now turn to the problems that the people of the island have to address.

The most visible indicator of fundamental social and economic decline is the skewed demographic: there has been an overall 17.5% decline in the population in the last 20 years; the age-profile is heavily weighted to the older age groups and there is a gender imbalance with more men than women. The main development proposals at the moment are: to create a marina in Lochboisdale; small-scale renewable energy schemes - no AMEC monsters here please - build affordable housing; improve the golf course at Askernish; attend to much needed drainage on the low ground, and institute a range of coastal protection measures.

As the pattern of settlement in Uist is very scattered the centrifugal tendency has traditionally been strong in community affairs with local loyalties much in evidence. This has militated against presenting a united front on important issues and has disadvantaged the island in the past. The very democratic and inclusive structure of the community company, Stòras Uibhist - the qualification for becoming a shareholder is proof of residency and one pound - should promote solutions that have popular support, respect the environmental assets of the island and are progressive. South Uist is by far the largest land area in Scotland taken into community ownership presenting huge challenges to those steering affairs and to the population as a whole. The potential benefits are, however, commensurately large. I know that SWLG members will wish us well in this enterprise and I will periodically update WLN readers with developments and progress.