Support Around Crofting Regulations
With years of experience with crofting regulations, we can help you navigate the practical, legal and administrative aspects of crofting.
With years of experience with crofting regulations, we can help you navigate the practical, legal and administrative aspects of crofting.
Crofting is a uniquely Scottish system of land tenure. People who live and work on small crofts have the right to use them for farming and food production. To maintain those rights, crofters must agree to care for the land correctly. Ordinarily, crofters must stay on or near their croft, actively put their croft to use, and not neglect the land.
The Crofting Register is a public register that lists the details of individual crofts, including their size, location, tenants and owners. It is operated by Registers of Scotland.
Registration is compulsory with certain ‘trigger events’ including Decrofting, Assignation and Division. Communities often come together to purchase land which houses crofts to be managed for the benefit of the local area, and arrangements of this kind need to be registered. Voluntary registration of individual crofts or groups of crofts in a township is encouraged.
As part of the registration process, owners have to provide a clear and accurate description of the croft. A croft plan needs to show boundaries, measurements, scale and orientation in alignment with Ordnance Survey (OS) guidelines. Croft registrations won’t be accepted without an adequate croft plan submission.
Although you don’t need to work with a specialist to register a croft, many crofters find it helpful to receive guidance from an experienced rural consultant.
We can help explain the croft registration process and support individuals and community groups to make an application. We can also offer practical support with preparing an OS-compliant croft plan.
As a crofter, you’ll know that maintaining one or more crofts can be quite an undertaking. We can take some of the work off your hands, helping you to tend the land and care for it correctly.
Our consultants can offer both guidance and practical support with your croft plans, giving you the reassurance that they’re viable and complementary to your community. It’s not just land maintenance that crofters need to think about. Registering a croft, selling it or planning for its succession all take time to organise.
With years of experience with crofting regulations, we can help you navigate the legal and administrative aspects of crofting.
12-14
Seafield Road
Inverness
IV1 1SG
Highlands & Islands Land Services Ltd is a business incorporated in Scotland (registration number SC697081)