Crofter
Crofter ( Scottish Gaelic : croitear ) are a peculiarity of Scottish agriculture , which is particularly widespread in the north-west of Scotland and the Hebrides . Crofters are farmers who work on leased land covered by the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 .
history
Although the first leases were mentioned from 1718 onwards, crofting was only mentioned around 1800. Before that, the land in and around the towns was farmed jointly by all residents. However, through the Highland Clearances , the population was driven from their localities and settled in inhospitable areas of the goods. There each crofter was given a piece of land to work on, but it was too small to make a living. Thus they were forced to earn an additional income to survive by fishing or harvesting kelp and other odd jobs , for example in road construction.
Until 1886 the Crofters had no rights to their land, they could be evicted at any time. Due to the traditional clan system , it was not in their nature to revolt against the resettlements. It was not until the Home Rule movement in Ireland, whose ideas were brought to Scotland by fishermen from the Outer Hebrides , that the first strikes occurred. In 1874 three crofters on Berneray refused to leave their land, they were taken to prison, but later acquitted. In 1881 the first lease strikes took place in Glendale and Brae on Skye , in which the Crofters refused to pay their lease until they got their pastureland back on the Beinn Lì.
Through the magazine The Highlander (1871-1881) by John Murdoch the problem of land ownership was taken up again and again and news about the situation of the crofters was spread. The spread of news led to support for the crofters, particularly encouraged by the establishment of the Highland Land Law Reform Association in London in 1883, the membership of which grew rapidly; In 1884 they had around 15,000 members. In parallel, the Crofters received voting rights through the Reform Acts 1882/83. With the help of the Highland Land Law Reform Association , the Crofters Party was founded, which was represented by five members in parliament in 1885.
Since the government feared the Irish Home Rule movement would spread to Scotland, a commission was formed under the leadership of Lord Napier , which examined the situation of the Crofters through interviews in the Highlands in 1883 and presented their report in 1884.
Under William Ewart Gladstone , the Crofters 'Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 was passed, which for the first time recognized the Crofters' rights to their land and their lease. It stipulated that the amount of the lease must be reasonable and that the independent Crofting Commission can review and redefine it. The business could now be passed on within the family and in the event of relocation full compensation for all improvements made by the crofter must be paid. The Crofters Act applies in the following traditional counties of Scotland: Shetland , Orkney , Caithness , Cromartyshire , Sutherland , Ross-shire , Inverness-shire and Argyll .
The Crofting Act 1886 encouraged crofters to make improvements to their crofts. Within the next 20 years around 40% of the black houses were replaced by permanent houses. In the following decades various grants were carried out by the Congested District Board (1897), the Board of Agriculture (1912-1925) and the Department of Agriculture (1928-1935) for the crofters. Among other things, loans were made to build houses, and land was purchased to expand the crofts or to return it to landless crofters.
In 1955, the Crofters Commission was established to protect the interests of the Crofters .
The Crofters Act 1976 made it possible for the Crofters to purchase their land at 15 times the lease price, thus becoming an owner-occupier ; however, only a few made use of it, as they then lost their entitlement to subsidies.
After the community buy-outs in Assynt (1993) and Eigg (1997), the Land Reform Act 2003 granted the crofting communities the right to acquire the land against the will of the landowner under certain conditions and to manage and manage as communal property under their own control.
In the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, the crofters and owner-occupiers were put on an equal footing and an administration was formed, which in part consists of crofters themselves. Furthermore, all crofts are registered. The regulation that the croft must be managed has been defined more precisely so that crofts, whose tenants live outside of Germany in the long term, sometimes even abroad, are free for the offspring.
present
A croft consists of the so-called in-by land , the fenced-in land adjacent to the house, which is used for arable and occasionally vegetable growing, as well as the common grazings, rather inferior land, which is used as communal pasture for the cattle and sheep of the Crofting township ( Locality from several neighboring crofts) serves.
The size of today's crofts is between larger than 1 ⁄ 2 ha and smaller than 50 ha, most are around 2–5 ha in size. According to the Crofting Commission, there are 18,027 crofts with approximately 10,000-12,000 crofting households in which approximately 33,000 people live. About 30% of the households are on the mainland of the Highlands and another 65% on Skye, the Hebrides and the Shetland Islands. Mostly they are run as family businesses and generate up to 15% of the income. A crofter can also have several crofts leased at the same time.
Around 1900 the Crofters had a relatively low social status, today this has changed fundamentally:
" Far from being a mildly embarrassing relic from the distant past crofting points the way to the diversified rural economy which is being sought on all sides " (Frank Rennie in Hunter 1991).
(Far from being a mildly shameful relic of a distant past, Crofting is today pointing out the path of wide-ranging rural development sought by all sides.)
Land management in Crofting Counties is severely affected by climate, short growing seasons, poor soils and mountainous terrain. Most of the Highlands and the Hebrides are classified as severely disadvantaged areas (Less-Favored Area) according to the guidelines of the European Union. However, today crofting is considered to be a form of use that is well adapted to the circumstances and at the same time makes an important contribution to nature conservation in these areas.
literature
- James Hunter: The claim of crofting: the Scottish Highlands and Islands, 1930-1990 . Mainstream, Edinburgh 1991, ISBN 1-85158-329-7 .
Web links
- Scottish Crofting Federation (English)
- Crofting Commission (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edward Dwelly: Illustrated Gaelic English Dictionary . Birlinn Lim, Edinburgh 2001, ISBN 1-84158-109-7 , p. 277.
- ↑ James Hunter: The making of the crofting community . John Donald, Edinburgh 2000, ISBN 0-85976-537-7 , p. 48.
- ↑ TM Devine: Clanship to Crofters' War: The Social Transformation of the Scottish Highlands. Manchester Univ. Press, 1993, pp. 5-17.
- ↑ Website of the Crofting Commission ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Scottish Crofting Foundation website . Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ↑ Mark Shucksmith, Polly Chapman, Gill Clark: Rural Scotland Today - the best of both worlds? Avebury, Aldershot 1996, ISBN 1-85972-367-5 , p. 189.
- ↑ James Hunter: The claim of crofting: the Scottish Highlands and Islands, 1930-1990. 1991, p. 21.