Residents offered first refusal on Barvas Estate sell-off 27/6/13
Crofters on the Barvas Estate have been given first refusal to buy their land before
it is sold to a private buyer.
The six village grazings clerks in the district have received a surprise offer from
the estate owner’s land agent Sir Robert Clerk.
Mr Clerk of estate factor Smith Gore of Edinburgh said the owners had decided - in
principle - to sell the 34,000 acre estate, including its salmon fishing rights,
and they would wish it to be taken over by the local crofting community.
Virtually all of the estate is under crofting tenure though the owners operate a
small inn or estate lodge and employ water bailiffs and a gamekeeper.
If the community reject the proposal or a suitable purchase price is not agreed,
the entire estate would be advertised on the open market for sale to a private buyer.
The crofting grazings clerks have arranged to meet to discuss the offer within days.
The proposal gives fresh impetus and a sense of urgency to a separate proposed community
land buyout which has been in the doldrums for some years.
A steering group has formally established a community entity called Urras Sgire Oighreachd
Bharabhais Community Company which was already exploring the idea of taking over
the estate which includes the remote offshore islands of North Rona and Sulasgeir.
The owners previously indicated a willingness to sell to the community but were keen
to keep hold of the fishing and sporting rights.
In any case the fisheries would be expensive to buy and possibly difficult to justify
to funders.
The Barvas Estate was created out of a 1924 carve up of Lewis when previous owner
soap king Lord Leverhulme fell on hard tomes and sold many of his Hebridean assets.
Rural communities refused his free gift offer to take over the land for nothing so
the island was split into separate estates and sold off privately.
Barvas estate, which includes the remote offshore islands of North Rona and Sulasgeir,
has been in the control of the same Lancashire family since then.
It was purchased by John Talbot Clifton for £2,900 and passed to his Duckworth relatives
when he died in 1928.
The owners keep a low profile, are benign landlords supportive of local development
and come up for the salmon fishing each summer.
In any case, funding is unlikely to be available for the community to buy them though
it may be possible to negotiate leased access to the river.
Progress of the buyout has been slow after it was first mooted in 2004 when Amec
revealed plans to pay about £10 million to the landlord to build a massive wind farm
across the estate.
The giant energy scheme was refused by the Scottish Government ruling out any future
alternative large scale wind farm for the Barvas moor.
However, a feasibility study in 2007 suggested establishing a handful of community-owned
turbines along with new housing and an environmental interpretation centre.