Rural Europe on the move English_chapt1_6 | Page 37

,
,
FINDING A SENSE OF PLACE
The Isle of Eigg
Community buy-out
Decades of stagnation in the
and cold houses, which they could
hands of absentee landlords had left not renovate because there was no
the islanders struggling to make a possibility of owning their home or
meaningful future for themselves. even acquiring a long-term lease.
The island was in poor shape with
In the early 1990s, the plan for
decaying infrastructure and electricity community buy-out of the island
dependence on noisy and dirty kicked off in earnest. The Isle of
individual generators that only kicked Eigg Heritage Trust was formed by
into life at night. The land was mostly a partnership between the Eigg
grazed by sheep and cattle for export residents’ association; the Highland
with hardly any food growing on the Council, our regional authority,
island’s crofts, micro-farms which until and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a
the 1950s had been self-sufficient in major environment charity. After a
hay, oats, potatoes and eggs. There remarkable public appeal, the Trust
was just one fisherman left and too managed to buy the island for £1.5m
many people were living in damp in 1997.
5. 6. The isle of Eigg Community
buy-out ceremony of 12 June 1997
The Eigg revolution
For anyone in the Scottish
countryside, this was huge: it opened
up whole new possibilities for the local
management of resources throughout
the country. For Scotland, it truly
was a revolution, and one that Isobel
Holbourn, the strong and tenacious
Shetlander at the head of the Highland
and Islands Forum, was absolutely
determined to share with all her friends
in Forum Synergies. She had been
instrumental in helping the islanders of
THE SCOTTISH LAND TENURE REVOLUTION
It was only when the Scottish parliament was finally re-instated in
2000 through the UK devolution settlement, that the land tenure
law which still included feudal aspects was finally modernised:
this is when a new Communities Right to Buy Act was created. This
ground-breaking reform was a direct consequence of the Eigg
community buy-out campaign: by highlighting what was wrong in a
land ownership system which gave 7% of the population control over
84% of the land, Scottish land-reformers were able to push for the
much needed changes in the law that finally gave rural communities
in Scotland the possibility to gain control of the land they lived on.
Eigg break their isolation, connect with
other Scottish rural communities, and
learn the tools that helped them on
After the heady days of celebration,
There was a plan for the future which
their journey to self-determination. For when the great and the good and all the Highland and Islands Forum team
her, bringing the Forum Synergies folks the friends of Eigg came together on had helped the islanders put together
to Eigg was the final part she wanted the now historic date of the 12th June to underpin the buy-out campaign,
to play in that journey. 1997, it was time to get back to work. and now was the time to implement
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