Crofters can now buy out local estate despite owner's opposition

LONDON LETTER:The spirit of the Lewis deerhunters lives on in the Pairc community in the Western Isles

IN 1887, tenants of the Pairc Estate on Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland staged a raid on the laird’s land. The laird had devoted much of the land to deer- hunting, regarding the crofters as a hindrance to pleasure.

Led by the local schoolmaster in Balallan, Donald MacRae, the six men spent two days killing deer on the huge estate, distributing the carcases to the locals left impoverished by the landowners, the Mathesons.

By night, however, MacRae was clever enough to get the Scottish press onside – a decision that reaped benefits when the group was sent for trial to Edinburgh after the authorities panicked and decided to come down hard on the deer-hunters.

Before the raid, villages on the estate had been systematically cleared, according to historical records, by the Mathesons – first of sheep, then of people – to ensure that the hunts by the laird’s guests for trophies were not stymied.

Despite a hostile summing-up from the judge in Edinburgh, the six, who had been charged with riot, were acquitted by the jury, while MacRae was carried shoulder-high to the Prince of Wales for a night’s merriment.

Today, a monument stands at the edge of Baile Ailein on the island “in fitting tribute to one of the most peaceful yet influential protests made in the history of the Crofters’ Wars”, according to the local literature.

For some on Lewis, the spirit lives on. Tenants on the Pairc Estate last week won the right from the Scottish government to buy out the 26,000-acre estate against the wishes of its English owner, Barry Lomas, whose family has held it since 1924.

Legislation from 2003 gives crofting communities the right to acquire and control the lands where they live and work, effectively forcing a sale if the communities have properly constituted themselves under the law.

Scottish environment minister Roseanna Cunningham, who has been much criticised for delaying her decision, said: “I wish them good fortune in raising the money required to purchase the estate and every success in shaping their own destiny.”

If the Pairc tenants do manage to raise the necessary funds, it will be the first time the laws – described as ground-breaking by those who approve and as controversial by those who do not – have been used to force a sale.

Crofters’ leader Angus McDowall said: “This is a historic step forward for our community and sends a message to the landlord that the economic and social development of Pairc in the interests of the whole community should be ranked above private financial gain.”

Locals, who argue that the population on the estate has dwindled dangerously in recent decades to just 400 today, plan, if they do win control, to build affordable homes, a camper-van site and holiday homes for visitors.

The owner, a wealthy Leamington Spa accountant, is understandably livid, complaining that he has been the victim of a campaign “of lies and deceit” and warning that his legal battle to defend his property is by no means over.

In a statement he said: “Pairc Estate had wanted the community to take ownership in March 2010, but they [the crofters] insisted on taking the hostile route, seemingly for the glory of having taken on the landlord.”

Saying that the locals, who voted by a majority in 2004 to buy the land, had spent six years seeking an amicable agreement, local Scottish Nationalist Party MP Alasdair Allan said he hoped that Lomas would now “accept a fair price for the land and let people” get on with their lives.

The situation has been complicated by wind power. In 2004, Lomas set up a subsidiary company, Pairc Renewables, and signed a 75-year lease with Scottish and Southern Energy to erect a £200 million, 57-turbine wind farm.

Under the arrangement, known as an “interposed lease” in Scottish law, the fees due from the turbines once in place would continue to have been paid to Lomas, regardless of whether he won or lost the land battle.

Ministers went to the Scottish Land Court to challenge, but it found in Lomas’s favour, ruling that such leases were lawful, leaving the Holyrood parliament with the task of changing the law.

The existence of a wind farm, and the fees it would generate, would obviously change the valuation of the land, but Scottish and Southern Energy’s planning application has still not been approved and it is facing objections.

The issue now is price. The planning application, the tenants’ buyout and Lomas’s legal challenges will all occur in tandem, but planning approval for the wind farm, if it progresses quickest, would significantly increase the sums the tenants need to find.

Not all of the tenants on the estate are in favour of the buyout, it would appear, with some privately fearing a change of any type. Others are vehemently opposed to the wind farm, which the crofters’ representative group, the Pairc Trust, strongly favours.

Elsewhere on the island, businessman Nicholas Oppenheim has already built one wind farm. In a bid to keep locals onside, he has put 1 per cent of the revenues into a community trust.