Agriculture in Scotland

The Southern Uplands around Durisdeer

The defining factor in the geography of Scotland is the distinction between the Highlands and Islands in the north and west and the Lowlands in the south and east. The Highlands are further divided into the Northwest Highlands and the Grampian Mountains by the fault line of the Great Glen. The Lowlands are divided into the fertile belt of the Central Lowlands and the higher terrain of the Southern Uplands, which included the Cheviot Hills, over which the border with England runs.^[1] The Central Lowland belt averages about 50 miles in width,^[2] and contains most of the good quality agricultural land.^[3] Scotland is half the size of England and Wales in area, but with its many inlets, islands and inland lochs, it has roughly the same amount of coastline at 4,000 miles. Only a fifth of Scotland is less than 60 metres above sea level.^[4]

Scotland's soils are diverse for a relatively small country due to the variation in geology, topography, climate, altitude and land use history. There are very productive arable soils in the east of the country, including some of the most productive for wheat and barley of anywhere in the world. Scotland's soils differ from much of the rest of the UK and Europe and they provide valuable habitats for wildlife and flora. They are largely naturally acidic in nature with high concentrations of organic carbon. They are predominantly coarse textured and often exhibit poor drainage.^[5]

The climate of Scotland is temperate and very changeable, but rarely extreme.^[6] Scotland is warmed by the North Atlantic Drift and given the northerly location of the country, experiences much milder conditions than areas on similar latitudes. Average temperatures are lower than in the rest of Great Britain. Western coastal areas of Scotland are warmer than the east and inland areas, due to the influence of the Atlantic currents, and the colder surface temperatures of the North Sea.^[7] Rainfall totals vary widely across Scotland—the western highlands of Scotland are one of the wettest places in the UK with annual rainfall up to 4,577 mm (180.2 in). In comparison, much of eastern Scotland receives less than 870 mm (34.3 in) annually; lying in the rain shadow of the western uplands.^[8] Annual average sunshine totals vary from as little as 711–1140 hours in the Highlands and the north-west up to 1471–1540 hours on the extreme eastern and south-western coasts.^[9] Wind prevails from the south-west, bringing warm, wet and unstable air from the Atlantic.^[6] The windiest areas of Scotland are in the north and west, with parts of the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland experiencing over 30 days with gales per year.^[6] Vigorous Atlantic depressions, also known as European windstorms, are a common feature of the autumn and winter in Scotland.^[10]

Discover more about Topography and climate related topics

Highlands and Islands

Highlands and Islands

The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides.

Scottish Lowlands

Scottish Lowlands

The Lowlands is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands.

Northwest Highlands

Northwest Highlands

The Northwest Highlands are located in the northern third of Scotland that is separated from the Grampian Mountains by the Great Glen. The region comprises Wester Ross, Assynt, Sutherland and part of Caithness. The Caledonian Canal, which extends from Loch Linnhe in the south-west, via Loch Ness to the Moray Firth in the north-east splits this area from the rest of the country. The city of Inverness and the town of Fort William serve as gateways to the region from the south.

Grampian Mountains

Grampian Mountains

The Grampian Mountains is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends southwest to northeast between the Highland Boundary Fault and the Great Glen. The range includes many of the highest mountains in the British Isles, including Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui.

Great Glen

Great Glen

The Great Glen, also known as Glen Albyn or Glen More, is a glen in Scotland running for 62 miles (100 km) from Inverness on the edge of the Moray Firth, in an approximately straight line to Fort William at the head of Loch Linnhe. It follows a geological fault known as the Great Glen Fault, and bisects the Scottish Highlands into the Grampian Mountains to the southeast and the Northwest Highlands to the northwest.

Central Lowlands

Central Lowlands

The Central Lowlands, sometimes called the Midland Valley or Central Valley, is a geologically defined area of relatively low-lying land in southern Scotland. It consists of a rift valley between the Highland Boundary Fault to the north and the Southern Uplands Fault to the south. The Central Lowlands are one of the three main geographical sub-divisions of Scotland, the other two being the Highlands and Islands which lie to the north, northwest and the Southern Uplands, which lie south of the associated second fault line. It is the most populated of Scotland’s three geographical regions.

Cheviot Hills

Cheviot Hills

The Cheviot Hills, or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes The Cheviot, plus Hedgehope Hill to the east, Windy Gyle to the west, and Cushat Law and Bloodybush Edge to the south.

Fauna of Scotland

Fauna of Scotland

The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of the northwest European part of the Palearctic realm, although several of the country's larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times and human activity has also led to various species of wildlife being introduced. Scotland's diverse temperate environments support 62 species of wild mammals, including a population of wild cats, important numbers of grey and harbour seals and the most northerly colony of bottlenose dolphins in the world.

Flora of Scotland

Flora of Scotland

The flora of Scotland is an assemblage of native plant species including over 1,600 vascular plants, more than 1,500 lichens and nearly 1,000 bryophytes. The total number of vascular species is low by world standards but lichens and bryophytes are abundant and the latter form a population of global importance. Various populations of rare fern exist, although the impact of 19th-century collectors threatened the existence of several species. The flora is generally typical of the north-west European part of the Palearctic realm and prominent features of the Scottish flora include boreal Caledonian forest, heather moorland and coastal machair. In addition to the native varieties of vascular plants there are numerous non-native introductions, now believed to make up some 43% of the species in the country.

North Sea

North Sea

The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, covering 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq mi).

Rain shadow

Rain shadow

A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side.

European windstorm

European windstorm

European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak intensity in the winter months. Deep areas of low pressure are common over the North Atlantic, and occasionally start as nor'easters off the New England coast. They frequently track across the North Atlantic Ocean towards the north of Scotland and into the Norwegian Sea, which generally minimizes the impact to inland areas; however, if the track is further south, it may cause adverse weather conditions across Central Europe, Northern Europe and especially Western Europe. The countries most commonly affected include the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

Prehistory

Map of available land in Medieval Scotland.^[11]

Mesolithic hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements in Scotland around 8500 BCE.^[12] These were highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers.^[13] In the Neolithic period, around 6,000 years ago, there is evidence of permanent settlements and farming.^[14] Archaeological evidence indicates that the two main sources of food were grain and cow's milk.^[15] From the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE, arable land spread at the expense of forest.^[16] From the Iron Age, beginning in the seventh century BCE, there is evidence of hill forts in southern Scotland that are associated with cultivation ridges and terraces.^[17] Souterrains, small underground constructions, may have been for storing perishable agricultural products.^[18] Aerial photography reveals extensive prehistoric field systems that underlie existing boundaries in some Lowland areas, suggesting that the fertile plains were already densely exploited for agriculture.^[17] During the period of Roman occupation there was re-growth of birch, oak and hazel for five centuries, suggesting a decline of population and agriculture.^[16]

Middle Ages

Threshing and pig feeding from a book of hours from the Workshop of the Master of James IV of Scotland (Flemish, c. 1541)

The early Middle Ages were a period of climate deterioration resulting in more land becoming unproductive.^[19] Most farms had to produce a self-sufficient diet of meat, dairy products and cereals, supplemented by hunter-gathering. Farming was based around a single homestead or a small cluster of three or four homes, each probably containing a nuclear family.^[20] The climate meant that more oats and barley were grown than corn (here meaning wheat)^[21] and cattle were the most important domesticated animal.^[22] In the period c. 1150 to 1300, warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive.^[23] Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands.^[24] The system of infield and outfield agriculture, a variation of open field farming widely used across Europe, may have been introduced with feudalism from the twelfth century^[17] and would continue until the eighteenth century.^[25] Crops were bere (a form of barley), oats and sometimes wheat, rye and legumes. The more extensive outfield was used for oats.^[17] By the late Medieval period, most farming was based on the Lowland fermtoun or Highland baile, settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, allocated in run rigs to tenant farmers, known as husbandmen.^[26] Runrigs usually ran downhill so that they included both wet and dry land. Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter, pulled by oxen, which were more effective and cheaper to feed than horses.^[26] Key crops included kale, hemp and flax. Sheep and goats were probably the main sources of milk, while cattle were raised for meat.^[27] The rural economy appears to have boomed in the thirteenth century and in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death was still buoyant, but by the 1360s there was a severe falling off in incomes to be followed by a slow recovery in the fifteenth century.^[28]

Early modern era

A Scottish Lowland farm from John Slezer's Prospect of Dunfermline, published in the Theatrum Scotiae, 1693

As feudal distinctions declined in the early modern era, the barons and tenants-in-chief merged to form a new identifiable group, the lairds.^[29] With the substantial landholders of the yeomen,^[30] these heritors were the major landholding orders.^[31] Those with property rights included husbandmen, lesser landholders and free tenants.^[32] Many young people, both male and female, left home to become domestic and agricultural servants.^[33] The early modern era also saw the impact of the Little Ice Age, of colder and wetter weather, which peaked towards the end of the seventeenth century.^[34] Almost half the years in the second half of the sixteenth century saw local or national scarcity, necessitating the shipping of large quantities of grain from the Baltic.^[35] In the early seventeenth century famine was relatively common, with four periods of famine prices between 1620 and 1625. The English invasions of the 1640s had a profound impact on the Scottish economy.^[36] Under the Commonwealth, the country was relatively highly taxed, but gained access to English markets.^[37] After the Restoration the formal frontier with England was re-established, along with its customs duties. Economic conditions were generally favourable from 1660 to 1688, as land owners promoted better tillage and cattle-raising.^[38] The closing decade of the seventeenth century there was a slump in trade with the Baltic and France and changes in the Scottish cattle trade, followed by four years of failed harvests (1695, 1696 and 1698-9), known as the "seven ill years".^[39] The shortages of the 1690s would be the last of their kind.^[40]

Agricultural revolution

Crofts at Borreraig on the island of Skye

Increasing contacts with England after the Union of 1707 led to a conscious attempt to improve agriculture among the gentry and nobility.^[41] The English plough was introduced and foreign grasses, the sowing of rye grass and clover. Turnips and cabbages were introduced, lands enclosed and marshes drained, lime was put down to combat soil acidity, roads built and woods planted. Drilling and sowing and crop rotation were introduced. The introduction of the potato to Scotland in 1739 provided a crop with a high yield, producing 3 to 5 times more calories per acre than a cereal crop.^[42]: 13 Enclosures began to displace the run rig system.^[41] The first result of these changes were the Lowland Clearances.^[41]

The botanist John Hope complained about British naturalists who were enthusiastically exploring the landscape of colonial America while "absolutely inattentive to the natural productions of our native country". He founded the Society for the Importation of Foreign Seeds and Plants pursuing, as Carl Linnaeus did in Lapland, the adaptation of valuable cash crop plants to the Highlands.^[43]

Agricultural improvement spread north and west, mostly over the period 1760 to 1850 as the Highland Clearances. Many farming tenants were evicted and offered tenancies in crofting communities, with their former possessions converted into large-scale sheep farms. Crofts were intended to be too small to support the occupants, so forcing them to work in other industries, such as fishing, quarrying or kelping.^[44] In the 1840 and 1850s Scotland suffered its last major subsistence crisis,^[45] when the potato blight that caused the Great Famine of Ireland reached the Highlands in 1846.^[46] This gave rise to the second phase of the Highland clearances, when landlords provided assisted passages for their tenants to emigrate in a desperate effort to rid themselves of a redundant population that was dependent on famine relief.

Twentieth century

Sheep grazing on slopes of Camp Hill, Bowmont Valley

In the twentieth century Scottish agriculture became susceptible to the ups and downs of world markets. There were dramatic price rises in the First World War, but a slump in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by more rises in World War II. In 1947 annual price reviews were introduced in an attempt to stabilise the market. After World War II there was a drive in UK agriculture to greater production until the late 1970s, resulting in intensive farming. More areas of marginal land were brought into production.^[47] There was increasing mechanisation of Scottish agriculture and farming became less labour-intensive.^[47] The UK membership of the European Economic Community (later the European Union) in 1972 began a change in orientation for Scottish farming. Some sectors, particularly hill sheep farming, became viable only with subsidies. A series of reforms to the CAP from the 1990s attempted to control over-production, limit incentives for intensive farming and mitigate environmental damage.^[48] A dual farm structure emerged, with agriculture divided between large commercial farms and small pluralised and diversified holdings.^[49]

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History of agriculture in Scotland

History of agriculture in Scotland

The history of agriculture in Scotland includes all forms of farm production in the modern boundaries of Scotland, from the prehistoric era to the present day.

Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and Western Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in Southwest Asia roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age system proposed in 1836 by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen for classifying and studying ancient societies and history.

Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. The concept has been mostly applied to Iron Age Europe and the Ancient Near East, but also, by analogy, to other parts of the Old World.

Agriculture in Scotland in the Middle Ages

Agriculture in Scotland in the Middle Ages

Agriculture in Scotland in the Middle Ages includes all forms of farm production in the modern boundaries of Scotland, between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century and the establishment of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. Scotland has between a fifth and a sixth of the amount of the arable or good pastoral land of England and Wales, mostly located in the south and east. Heavy rainfall encouraged the spread of acidic blanket peat bog, which with wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. The existence of hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made internal communication and agriculture difficult. Most farms had to produce a self-sufficient diet of meat, dairy products and cereals, supplemented by hunter-gathering. The early Middle Ages were a period of climate deterioration resulting in more land becoming unproductive. Farming was based around a single homestead or a small cluster of three or four homes, each probably containing a nuclear family and cattle were the most important domesticated animal.

Master of James IV of Scotland

Master of James IV of Scotland

The Master of James IV of Scotland was a Flemish manuscript illuminator and painter most likely based in Ghent, or perhaps Bruges. Circumstantial evidence, including several larger panel paintings, indicates that he may be identical with Gerard Horenbout. He was the leading illuminator of the penultimate generation of Flemish illuminators. The painter's name is derived from a portrait of James IV of Scotland which, together with one of his Queen Margaret Tudor, is in the Prayer book of James IV and Queen Margaret, a book of hours commissioned by James and now in Vienna. He has been called one of the finest illuminators active in Flanders around 1500, and contributed to many lavish and important books besides directing an active studio of his own.

Galloway

Galloway

Galloway is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway.

Bere (grain)

Bere (grain)

Bere, pronounced "bear," is a six-row barley currently cultivated mainly on 5-15 hectares of land in Orkney, Scotland. It is also grown in Shetland, Caithness and on a very small scale by a few crofters on some of the Western Isles, i.e. North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Islay and Barra. It is probably Britain's oldest cereal in continuous commercial cultivation.

Legume

Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces on two sides.

Husbandman

Husbandman

A husbandman in England in the Middle Ages and the early modern period was a free tenant farmer, or a small landowner. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman. The meaning of "husband" in this term is "master of house" rather than "married man". According to anthropologist Charles Partridge, in England "Husbandman is a term denoting not rank but occupation... Knights, esquires, gentlemen and yeomen were also husbandmen if occupied in agriculture, but were never styled husbandmen because of their right to be styled knights, etc. The agriculturist who had no right to be styled knight or esquire or gentleman, and who, not being a forty-shilling freeholder was not a yeoman, was described as husbandman."

Coulter (agriculture)

Coulter (agriculture)

A (US:) colter / (British:) coulter is a vertically mounted component of many ploughs that cuts an edge about 7 inches (18 cm) deep ahead of a plowshare. Its most effective depth is determined by soil conditions.

Hemp

Hemp

Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of Cannabis sativa cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth. It was also one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 50,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, and animal feed.

Land use

A combine harvester near Loch Leven

At the time of the June 2013 agricultural census the total area of agricultural holdings in Scotland was 5.6 million hectares, equal to 73 per cent of Scotland’s total land area. Just over half of this was rough grazing, with about a quarter taken up by grass, and about ten per cent used for crops or left fallow. The remainder was made up of woodland, ponds, yards or other uses. There was a further 580,000 hectares of common grazing, which if included made the total area 6.2 million hectares, or 79 per cent of Scotland’s total land area.^[50] Because of the persistence of feudalism and the land enclosures of the nineteenth century, the ownership of most land is concentrated in relatively few hands (some 350 people own about half the land). As a result, in 2003 the Scottish Parliament passed Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 that empowered tenant farmers and communities to purchase land even if the landlord did not want to sell.^[51]

In June 2013, of crops grown in Scotland (excluding grass), cereals accounted for 78 per cent of the land area, with nearly three-quarters of that being barley (340,000 hectares). Wheat was also significant (87,000 hectares), along with oilseed rape (34,000 hectares), oats (32,000 hectares) and potatoes (29,000 hectares). Amongst fruit and vegetables, a total of 911 hectares of strawberries were grown, mainly under cover, which was the largest source of income amongst horticulture crops.^[50] The major areas of cereal production were Grampian, Tayside, Borders, Lothian and Fife.^[52]

Distinctive Highland Cattle. Numbers of livestock, including cattle have been declining.

Livestock numbers have been falling in recent years. The trend began at the turn of the millennium in the case of pigs and sheep and dates to the mid-1970s in the case of cattle. In June 2013 there were 6.6 million sheep, 1.8 million cattle and 308,000 pigs, the lowest numbers since the 1940 and 1950s. Poultry numbers have tended to fluctuate over the last 25 years, but were down to 14.2 million in 2013.^[50]

About 13,340 km² of land in Scotland is forested^[53] representing around 15 per cent of the total land area of Scotland. The majority of forests are in public ownership, with forestry policy being controlled by the Forestry Commission. The biggest plantations and timber resources are to be found in Dumfries and Galloway, Tayside, Argyll and the area governed by Highland Council. The economic activities generated by forestry in Scotland include planting and harvesting as well as sawmilling, the production of pulp and paper and the manufacture of higher value goods. Forests, especially those surrounding populated areas in Central Scotland also provide a recreation resource.^[50]

Income and employment

Total income from farming (TIFF) has been rising since the turn of the millennium. It was estimated at £700 million in 2012, being made up of £2.9 billion in outputs and £570 million in support payments, offset by £2.8 billion in costs. The initial estimate of TIFF for 2013 was £830 million, an increase largely linked to the improved weather. TIFF per annual work unit increased to £31,000, similar to the value in 2011.^[50]

A fish farm near Tarbet on Loch Nevis

Aquaculture production is focused on the West and North of the country. The total output of aquaculture was estimated in 2011 at around £434 million per year, including around £412 million for farmed Atlantic salmon, £14.34 million for rainbow trout and £7.7 million for shellfish. Brown trout, sea trout, halibut and Arctic charr are also farmed in Scotland.^[54]

Some farm businesses rely on sources of income other than from farming, including contracting work, hosting mobile phone masts, tourism and recreation and financial support from grants and subsidies. Analysis of the Farm Accounts Survey suggests that, excluding support from grants and subsidies, the average farm made a loss of £16,000 in 2012. However, calculations from TIFF suggest that, excluding support, the sector still made a small profit.^[50]

Government figures indicate that in 2013 Scottish agriculture employed around 1.5 per cent of the workforce and contributes around 1 per cent of the Scottish economy.^[50] Other studies suggest the employment rate to be around 8 per cent of the total rural population, and in terms of numbers the estimates indicate that around 68,000 people are directly employed or self-employed in agriculture, while around 200,000 people are related to a variety of activities related to agriculture. In the Highlands and Islands, around 10 per cent of the workforce are engaged in agriculture and livestock products contribute around 70 per cent of the output.^[55]

Discover more about Modern agriculture related topics

Combine harvester

Combine harvester

The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine designed to harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnowing—to a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), sorghum, soybeans, flax (linseed), sunflowers and rapeseed. The separated straw, left lying on the field, comprises the stems and any remaining leaves of the crop with limited nutrients left in it: the straw is then either chopped, spread on the field and ploughed back in or baled for bedding and limited-feed for livestock.

Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003

Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which establishes statutory public rights of access to land and makes provisions under which bodies representing rural and crofting communities may buy land.

Forestry Commission

Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Wigtownshire, the latter two of which are collectively known as Galloway. The administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Dumfries. The second largest town is Stranraer, on the North Channel coast, some 57 miles (92 km) to the west of Dumfries.

Tayside

Tayside

Tayside was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named for the River Tay.

Argyll

Argyll

Argyll, sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater, brackish water and saltwater populations under controlled or semi-natural conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish. Mariculture, commonly known as marine farming, refers specifically to aquaculture practiced in seawater habitats and lagoons, as opposed to freshwater aquaculture. Pisciculture is a type of aquaculture that consists of fish farming to obtain fish products as food.

Brown trout

Brown trout

The brown trout is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, Salmo trutta morpha fario, a lacustrine ecotype, S. trutta morpha lacustris, also called the lake trout, and anadromous forms known as the sea trout, S. trutta morpha trutta. The latter migrates to the oceans for much of its life and returns to fresh water only to spawn. Sea trout in Ireland and Britain have many regional names: sewin in Wales, finnock in Scotland, peal in the West Country, mort in North West England, and white trout in Ireland.

Sea trout

Sea trout

Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout, and is often referred to as Salmo trutta morpha trutta. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal, mort, finnock (Scotland), white trout (Ireland) and salmon trout (culinary).

Halibut

Halibut

Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera Hippoglossus and Reinhardtius from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish.

The West of Scotland Agricultural College formed in 1899, the East of Scotland Agricultural College in 1901, and the North of Scotland Agricultural College in 1904; these colleges amalgamated to form the Scottish Agricultural College in 1990.^[56]

Scotways sign for a "Public Path"

Site-specific nature conservations began in the UK with the creation of the Nature Conservancy in 1948, which later became the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC). It moved from a research-based advisory group to become a campaigning body. The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act excluded Scotland, but introduced the concept of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which were to become a key part of managing nature conservation.^[57] A Countryside Commission Scotland (CSS) was established under the Countryside Scotland Act, 1967.^[58] The SSSI were strengthened by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, which for the first time introduced the concept of payments to farmers for inactivity in relation to specific sites and shifted the burden of proof from conservationist having to prove harm, to landholders having to prove that harm was not taking place. The NCC was broken up in 1991 and in Scotland was merged with CSS to produce Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), under a UK-wide Joint Nature Conservation Committee. SNH has a remit for both land and nature conservation and a responsibility towards sustainability and to the consideration of the needs of the Scottish people.^[57]

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Environment of Scotland

Environment of Scotland

Scotland occupies the northern part of the United Kingdom. The landscape is diverse; ranging from rugged mountain terrain to arable flat land with many rivers and lochs.

Nature Conservancy Council

Nature Conservancy Council

The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991.

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation.

In Scotland, a right of way is a route over which the public has been able to pass unhindered for at least 20 years.^[59] The route must link two "public places", such as villages, churches or roads. Unlike in England and Wales there is no obligation on Scottish local authorities to signpost or mark a right of way. However, the charity Scotways, formed in 1845 to protect rights of way, records and signs the routes.^[60] The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone statutory access rights to most land and inland water in Scotland, to non-motorized traffic, making the existence of rights of way less important in terms of access to land in Scotland. Certain categories of land are excluded from this presumption of open access, such as railway land, airfields and private gardens.^[61]

Discover more about Rights of way related topics

Right of way

Right of way

Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage, to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar right of access also exists on land held by a government, lands that are typically called public land, state land, or Crown land. When one person owns a piece of land that is bordered on all sides by lands owned by others, an easement may exist or might be created so as to initiate a right of way through the bordering land.

Rights of way in England and Wales

Rights of way in England and Wales

In England and Wales, excluding the 12 Inner London boroughs and the City of London, the right of way is a legally protected right of the public to pass and re-pass on specific paths. The law in England and Wales differs from Scots law in that rights of way exist only where they are so designated, whereas in Scotland any route that meets certain conditions is defined as a right of way, and in addition, there is a general presumption of access to the countryside. Private rights of way or easements also exist.

Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003

Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which establishes statutory public rights of access to land and makes provisions under which bodies representing rural and crofting communities may buy land.