Crofting Law and Growing Rights: What a Crofter Can and Must Do With the Land

A croft is not a smallholding with a nicer name. It is a specific legal tenure created by statute, with rights an allotment holder does not have and duties that do not apply to one either. Neglect the cultivation duty for long enough and the Crofting Commission can start a formal process that ends with the croft let to someone else.

What a croft is, legally

Under section 3 of the 1993 Act a croft is, broadly, agricultural land let for crofting or recorded as such, within the crofting counties or the areas added since 2010. It usually has two parts: the in-bye land, the fenced, cultivable ground worked directly by the crofter, and a right to graze stock on a common grazing shared with other crofters in the township.

There are roughly 21,000 crofts in Scotland, 72% rented by tenant crofters and 28% owned by owner-occupier crofters, covering more than 750,000 hectares and about 30,000 people in crofting households. An average croft is about 5 hectares but can be smaller or more than 50. Crofts sit almost entirely in the traditional crofting counties: Argyll, Caithness, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Orkney and Shetland. Since 2010 Scottish Ministers have designated further areas where new crofts can be created, including parts of Highland, Moray, Argyll and Bute and North Ayrshire.

A crofter is either a tenant crofter, renting under statutory protection that goes well beyond an ordinary agricultural tenancy (security of tenure, fair rent, the right to assign or bequeath), or an owner-occupier crofter. The Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 extended the main duties to owner-occupiers, closing a gap that used to leave an owner-occupier with far fewer obligations than a tenant on identical ground.

The legal framework: two Acts

The Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 is the core consolidating statute. It restates tenure rules built up since 1886, defines a croft and a crofter, sets the conditions of tenure, governs common grazings and, as amended, sets out the duties. The Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 modernised the system on top of it. It separated the Crofting Commission's regulatory role from development work (moved to Highlands and Islands Enterprise), rebuilt the board so most members are elected by crofters, created the map-based Crofting Register run by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, extended duties to owner-occupiers (sections 19A to 19C), and built the enforcement machinery (sections 26A to 26K). Narrower changes came in 2007 and 2013, and the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Act 2026 is working its way into force (see below).

A crofter's duties

Every crofter, tenant or owner-occupier, has three statutory duties:

• To be ordinarily resident on, or within 32 kilometres of, the croft (section 5AA).
• To cultivate the croft or put it to another purposeful use, so that every part capable of use is one or the other (section 5C).
• Not to misuse or neglect it (section 19C for owner-occupiers, with equivalent provisions for tenants).

Cultivate is defined broadly in section 5C(8): it includes horticulture, keeping or breeding livestock, poultry or bees, growing fruit and vegetables, planting trees and using the land as woodland. A crofter running a market garden is squarely within it; crofting law was never written with only livestock in mind.

Purposeful use is the alternative: "any planned and managed use which does not adversely affect" the croft, the public interest, the landlord's or owner's interest or the use of adjacent land. The Commission's guidance gives examples such as a campsite or an equestrian centre, provided the use is planned and does not prevent the croft returning to cultivation. Letting land run wild with no plan behind it does not qualify.

Misuse and neglect are two separate tests. Misuse is wilfully and knowingly using the croft for something other than cultivation or purposeful use, or failing to cultivate or put it to any purposeful use. Neglect is a technical standard: the croft is not managed to the "good agricultural and environmental condition" standards set in the Common Agricultural Policy Schemes (Cross-Compliance) (Scotland) Regulations 2004. Section 19C(6) adds a carve-out: planned and managed action, or restraint, to conserve the natural beauty or the flora and fauna of the locality is not misuse or neglect.

What happens if a crofter does not comply

The Commission follows defined stages (sections 26A to 26K and its published procedures), each with a timescale:

The process is built around chances to fix the problem first: an undertaking that is complied with ends the matter, and the main decisions carry a right of appeal to the Scottish Land Court, which has short time limits (the Commission's guidance has quoted 42 days for some decisions, so check the date on any decision notice). It cannot end a tenancy overnight on one inspector's say-so. It is also real. The Commission's 2022 policy plan says plainly that much croft land and common grazing is neglected because some crofters are failing to comply, and that it has invested in a dedicated duties enforcement team.

Reports come from grazings committees, who must report suspected non-compliance, from any member of the crofting community, and from the Commission's own annual notice returns and inspections. What triggers the process is rarely one bad season: it is land visibly reverting to rushes, scrub or bracken over several years with no cultivation, stock or plan behind it. The process concerns the croft land, not automatically the house; many crofters buy the croft house site separately so it sits outside the tenancy. If your house is on unbought croft ground, get legal advice on your own position.

Other rights and processes

• Individual right to buy. A tenant crofter can apply to the Scottish Land Court to buy the croft land (section 12 of the 1993 Act) and has a right to buy the croft house site. If landlord and crofter cannot agree a price, the Land Court sets it. An allotment tenant has no right to buy the plot.
• Community right to buy. A registered crofting community body can buy croft land, common grazings or associated land, even if the owner is not selling, under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, separate from the general community right to buy and asset transfer routes.
• Subletting. With the Commission's consent a tenant crofter can sublet, or an owner-occupier can grant a short-term let, a route the Commission names for a crofter who cannot currently comply.
• Assignation and succession. A tenant can assign the tenancy, subject to Commission consent, or bequeath it; without a will it passes under the 1993 Act and the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964.
• Decrofting. Formally removing land from crofting tenure, typically for a house site or non-agricultural use, decided by the Commission under sections 24 and 25.
• Consent to be absent. A crofter who needs to live away from the croft can apply to the Commission for consent under section 21B rather than breach the residency duty; it can attach conditions, including a time limit.
• Fair rent. Either party can apply to have a fair rent fixed. An allotment tenant's rent is set by the local authority's charging policy.

Common grazings

Many crofts include a right in a common grazing, shared hill or rough ground that several crofters in a township graze together (sections 47 to 51A). It is run by a grazings committee, elected by the shareholders, or on smaller grazings a single grazings constable, under regulations that cover stocking levels, drainage, fencing and woodland use. Common grazing makes up a large share of crofting land, not a marginal add-on. A crofter's right is usually a souming, a defined entitlement to graze a set number of livestock, not an unlimited right.

Apportionment: individual use of part of a common grazing

Apportionment (section 52) takes a defined part of a common grazing out of shared use and puts it under one crofter's exclusive control, still within crofting tenure. It is most often used for stock management, an agricultural building, a house site or planting woodland. Any crofter with a right in the grazing can apply, but you should first discuss the location and extent with the grazings committee or constable, and the Commission acts after consulting the committee.

The Commission's published parameters set a faster route where all of these hold: the applicant lives on the croft or within 32km, keeps stock (for a stock-management apportionment), the use is an agricultural building, a dwelling-house site under 0.4 hectares or tree planting, nobody objects, and the area does not cut off access to the rest of the grazing or other croft land. An application that misses any of these still goes through the full process, with more scrutiny.

The full process includes the application with a site map, a 28-day advertised comment period in a local newspaper, a report from the Scottish Government's Rural Payments divisionPropagating a clump-forming perennial by digging it up and splitting it into several smaller pieces, each with roots and shoots attached. Full definition →, which can take several months, and the Commission's decision. Once approved, the ground normally has to be fenced within two years, the apportionment must be registered within three months or it lapses, and there is a Registers of Scotland fee of £90. It is not a free gain: taking a share of common grazing into exclusive use reduces your souming on what remains shared. A refusal can be appealed to the Scottish Land Court.

The Crofting Commission's role

The Crofting Commission is the dedicated crofting regulator, distinct from a local authority (which regulates allotments) and from Registers of Scotland (which runs the Crofting Register). It approves or refuses applications (assignation, subletting, apportionment, decrofting, consent to be absent), keeps crofting records and runs the duty-enforcement process. One routine tool is the annual notice, a return issued each year to check who is living where and how the croft is used. After the 2010 Act most board members are elected crofters, reflecting a stated policy of encouraging crofters to understand their responsibilities and self-regulate. For plain-language advice, the Scottish Crofting Federation is the main member-run body for crofters.

A reform is underway

The Crofting and Scottish Land Court Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 18 May 2026. It reworks the duty-enforcement process, apportionment, decrofting and common grazings management, and merges the Scottish Land Court with the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. Most of its provisions are not yet in force: they need commencement regulations, and the Commission must publish some guidance, including timescales for consent decisions, within two years of Royal Assent. Until regulations are made, the rules above remain the operative law. Anyone acting close to an enforcement, apportionment or decrofting provision should check the Act's commencement status on legislation.gov.uk or with the Commission.

How this differs from an allotment

Crofting grew out of 19th-century Highland land reform; allotments trace to the 1892 Act's urban roots, covered in the history of allotments in Scotland. The practical legal differences today:

An allotment holder who lets a plot go to weeds faces whatever their council's tenancy agreement says, which varies by site; a crofter faces the same national statutory process anywhere in the crofting counties. See community gardens vs allotments for how allotment tenancy and community growing compare.

Common questions

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