Agriculture and Crofting

Crofting is the predominant form of land use in the Western Isles and is the foundation of the way of life, the language and the culture. About 77% of the land area is held in crofting tenure and is therefore subject to crofting legislation. There are some 6,000 crofts distributed among 280 townships. Of these, 94% provide less than 2 days work per week for their occupiers and typically average 3 hectares in size.

The quality of land and sizes of crofts and grazings vary considerably throughout the area but generally, the smallest crofts are to be found on the poorest land and most of the large full-time crofts are in Uist.

Crofting and the plurality of occupation associated with it is increasingly recognised as a model for rural development. However, crofting still faces many problems, notably, the age structure of the crofting population.

Raising store lambs is the most important crofting product in the Western Isles. These lambs are fattened for slaughter elsewhere in the UK or in Europe. The rearing of calves as store or as hardy breeding stock is also carried out, mainly in the Uists and Barra, although the number of cattle is only a fraction of what they were at the turn of the century.

Despite the changes that have affected crofting agriculture, something, which has remained unchanged, is the traditional extensive methods of farming. The crofting system is still a very low input system with little added in the form of chemicals. Traditional use of seaweed and dung fertiliser is still widespread in the Uists and Barra.

As a form of land use, crofting has been extremely successful in maintaining rural populations in areas where they would otherwise certainly have disappeared.

For more information refer to the Scottish Crofting Federation (Opens in a new window or downloads a file) or the Crofters Commission sites.