Crown Estate Scotland could buy Highland estates to sell back to local communities

It is understood there are discussions about whether the inner Hebridean island of Rum could be bought by islanders. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

Crown Estate Scotland, the body that manages land and seabed once owned outright by British monarchs, could help buy large Highland estates and then sell them back to local communities.

Crown Estate Scotland has agreed to support a radical agenda being pushed through by Scottish ministers to increase community ownership of large estates, in an agreement struck with the Scottish Land Commission.