Land ownership in rural Scotland more concentrated despite reforms, study finds

The Scottish Highlands. Wightman’s analysis shows hereditary peers own less land than previously, while the number of private investors in ‘green capital’ schemes has surged. Photograph: mauinow1/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Land ownership in Scotland has become even more concentrated despite two decades of land reform legislation, with green capital investors becoming increasingly dominant, a study has found.

Andy Wightman, the land reform campaigner who published a groundbreaking look at Scottish land distribution in 2012, has calculated that half of all privately owned rural land in Scotland, or 3.2m hectares (7.9m acres), is held by just 433 people and companies, with only 2.76% of rural Scotland held by community groups.