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First Gaelic law lord for land court        21/10/14

 

Skyeman, Roderick John MacLeod, QC, has been installed as chairman of the Scottish Land Court.

 

The 61-year-old takes the judicial title of Lord Minginish after the parish in Skye in which he was brought up

 

Lord Minginish also becomes President of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, the two posts having been linked since 1978.

 

He becomes the first Gaelic speaker to occupy the chair since the Land Court was established in 1912.

 

Mr MacLeod was born and raised in Portnalong in the Isle of Skye.  

 

His parents, originally from Harris, moved to Skye in the 1920s as part of a scheme organised by the Board of Agriculture at that time.

 

He graduated from University of Edinburgh with honours in law in 1975.

 

Following a legal apprenticeship and two years spent working in Gaelic broadcasting with the BBC he practised first as a solicitor in Edinburgh before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in July 1994.

 

In October 2000 he was appointed a full-time Sheriff and in 2006 was seconded to the Scottish Land Court as its deputy chair, although he continued to sit as a sheriff at Edinburgh Sheriff Court when Land Court commitments permitted.  In 2013 he was given the rank and dignity of Queen’s Counsel.

 

He is also the chair of the board of directors at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

 

The Land Court was created by the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911 and opened its doors for business in 1912.