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Scotsman
24-07-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Campaigners walk 185-miles across Scotland for land justice
The walk covers a varied range of landownership from community ownership to venture-capital owned places. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Dozens of campaigners for land justice are set to walk across Scotland for their cause. The 185-mile trek will see participants march between the Isle of Skye and Glasgow in September in a mission called 'Just Walk.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Organisers behind the event, Grassroots to Global, a Scotland-based group campaigning for political change and community empowerment, said the walk will 'rekindle the spirit of those who resisted The Clearances, and who fought for Land Justice during the Crofters Wars.' David Lees or Grassroots Global which is behind the Just Walk event | David Lees The three-week-long excursion is also aimed at bringing conversations of land ownership in Scotland more to the fore. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The campaign group points to the increasing number of private companies buying up large swathes of land in Scotland. David Lees, from Grassroots to Global, said: 'We see this very much in the footsteps of The Jarrow March in the '30s and the Marches for Jobs in the 1980s. Five views in one: Knoydart, Sleat, Eigg, Rum, South Uist | Andy Tibbetts 'Despite past campaigns, there are still huge land ownership issues and we now see venture capital companies buying up huge estates in Scotland. 'The march will allow us to highlight injustices, by drawing attention to a system where communities are often excluded from decision-making about the land they live on.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Covering almost 200 miles, the walkers are set to cross different types of land ownership, from community owned to venture-capital owned, Forestry Land Scotland property to private land. 'We will be holding up a magnifying glass to these different places as well as testing the right to roam,' Mr Lees said. He said while traversing Loch Lomond, the walkers hope to speak to nearby communities about the Flamingo-land controversy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Community Land Scotland (CLS), the main organisations behind community ownership in Scotland, supported the project. Dr Josh Doble, CLS's director of policy and advocacy, said: 'We welcome this walk as a great opportunity to raise awareness of the archaic and deeply unjust issues around land ownership in Scotland. 'It's a long walk, through an area where there is a wide variety of land ownership from corporate, to public, to various levels of private. 'There are also some community owned landholdings en route, which we hope will provide inspiration for what is possible in terms of local economic, social and environmental development if more communities take ownership of land. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The over-concentration of land in so few private hands is highly unusual globally and Just Walk can help raise public awareness of the need for radical change.' The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is currently being debated in the Scottish Parliament and is at stage two, where it has seen more than 500 amendments. It has faced major criticism from rural organisations, including estates membership organisation Scottish Land and Estates (SL&E) which claimed some measures, including the breaking up of estates, will result in lasting damage to Scotland's rural economy. Others have argued the paper does not go far enough in splitting large land holdings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad According to a blog post written last year by land campaigner and former Scottish Greens MSP Andy Wightman, 433 landowners owned 50 per cent of the privately-owned rural land in 2024 compared to 440 in 2012. The 'Just Walk' walkers will leave from Broadford on Skye on September 17 across the hills out of Knoydart and on to Glenfinnan. After crossing the Corran Ferry, the marchers head for Ballachulish and Glen Coe, before following the West Highland Way to Carbeth and finishing at the Broomielaw in Glasgow on October 7.
The Herald Scotland
24-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
'We are walking from Skye to Glasgow to call for urgent land reform'
Around 70 people have so far shown an interest in doing the walk, with more expected to sign up before the event. Organisers say the three-week, 'Just Walk', will highlight the issue of land ownership in Scotland, where just over 400 people own 50 per cent of private rural land. The protesters leave from Broadford on Skye on September 17, then taking the long walk across the hills out of Knoydart and on to Glenfinnan. After crossing the Corran Ferry, the marchers head for Ballachulish and Glen Coe, before following the West Highland Way to Carbeth and finishing at the Broomielaw in Glasgow on October 7. The walkers will reach out to communities along the way, raising the issues around land rights and sharing information and experience with west coast communities. The protesters leave from Skye on September 17 Just Walk is organised by Grassroots to Global, a Scotland-based group campaigning for radical change in political decision-making, community empowerment, and environmental security. David Lees from Grassroots to Global said: 'We see this very much in the footsteps of The Jarrow March in the '30's and the Marches for Jobs in the 1980's.' 'Despite past campaigns, there are still huge land ownership issues and we now see venture capital companies buying up huge estates in Scotland', he continues. 'The march will allow us to highlight injustices, by drawing attention to a system where communities are often excluded from decision-making about the land they live on.' He continued: 'Over nearly 200 miles, we will be crossing different types of land ownership – some community owned spaces, some big, murky, venture-capital type spaces, some Forestry Land Scotland property, and various privately-owned spaces. We will be holding up a magnifying glass to these different places as well as testing the right to roam.' In the Loch Lomond side section of the walk, the walkers hope to speak to nearby communities about the Flamingo Land controversy. READ MORE: Scotland for sale – but who's buying? The problematic question of land reform Eva Schonveld of Grassroots to Global said: 'We view the walk in part as a 'walking people's assembly'. Over 70 people have so-far shown an interest in doing the walk. We'll be in a lot of very thinly-populated areas and we're taking a lot of care to limit numbers where needed and make sure that our impact on the land and communities we pass through is positive.' The walk will be joined by indigenous land activists from Kenya and Canada. Justin Kenrick, who works to support forest peoples community land rights in Africa, said: 'Community lands in Africa, in Scotland, and around the world are not remnants of some vanished past. Community lands are the only route to a liveable future where we reduce our negative impact on the environment, and build resilient relationships with each other and the lands where we live'. The walk includes a number of theatre projects which will be performed in various stop-off points. Skye-based writer, Daniel Cullen, who wrote the play 'The Chariot, The Flag, and the Empty, Empty Houses' will bring elements of the piece to a number of communities en route. 'That play dealt with a lot of the relevant issues: short-term lets, land ownership and the erosion of the Gaelic language', David Lees added. 'In an echo of the great John McGrath's excellent drama from the 1970's 'The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil', which toured communities which were traditionally 'off the map' for national scale pieces, we also hope to reach folk that might otherwise be excluded.' Just Walk is also working with an Arts group based in Torry in Aberdeenshire who are in the process of dramatizing their experience of land justice issues in 'A Play for Torry'. Glasgow-based Red Flag Players, who have written a piece about the Craigallian Fire - which was kept burning for 20 years as a symbol of the struggle for land rights - will be involved along the route, including a performance at Carbeth, which was (and remains) a pivotal site in the Craigallian story, and the broader story of land reform in Scotland. The group said: 'We also want to use the tradition of the ceilidh house to tell the story, with people gathering, and eating food, and singing and listening to stories from the communities. 'We hope to help weave together the issues around Scotland as a lot of places feel they are isolated in facing the various injustices.' Commenting on the walk, Dr Josh Doble, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Community Land Scotland, said: 'We welcome this walk as a great opportunity to raise awareness of the archaic and deeply unjust issues around land ownership in Scotland. It's a long walk, through an area where there is a wide variety of land ownership from corporate, to public, to various levels of private. 'There are also some community owned landholdings enroute, which we hope will provide inspiration for what is possible in terms of local economic, social and environmental development if more communities take ownership of land. 'The over-concentration of land in so few private hands is highly unusual globally and Just Walk can help raise public awareness of the need for radical change. We congratulate the walkers on their effort and look forward to working together in the future as we collectively reshape Scotland's unjust land ownership.'
