Crofting

Crofts are small agricultural holdings worked by tenant farmers. Crofting is a unique form of land tenure which became popular, especially on remote islands, in the 19 Century after the Highland Clearances. The Crofters Act of 1886 gave tenants security of tenure, the right to pass on the land to heirs and to claim compensation for improvements from the landlord. The 1976 Act allowed crofters to buy the land but they lost many of their rights including the right to graze their herds on common land. The way round this problem was to form a trust to buy the crofts and to rent the crofts back from the trust. Crofting is a hard life but holdings are in great demand as more and more people dream of escaping the pressures of large cities and living off the land.

Crofter
A term used, more particularly in the Highlands and islands of Scotland, to designate a tenant who rents and cultivates a small holding of land or "croft." This Old English word, meaning originally an enclosed field, seems to correspond to the Dutch kroft , a field on high ground or downs. The ultimate origin is unknown. By the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland)Act 1886, a crofter is defined as the tenant of a holding who resides on his holding,the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is situated in a crofting parish. The wholesale clearances of tenants from their crofts during the 19th century, in violation of, as the tenants claimed, an implied security of tenure, has led in the past to much agitation on the part of the crofters to secure consideration of their grievances. They have been the subject of royal commissions and of considerable legislation, but the effect of the Crofters Act of 1886, with subsequent amending acts, has been to improve their condition markedly, and much, but not all, of the agitation has now died out.

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