The estate at the centre of a major confrontation over the way farm tenants were treated when land was sold has put another 9,000 acres on the market.
Buccleuch Estate is selling Evertown – a rural portfolio comprising equipped farms, productive farmland, commercial forestry and planting opportunities near Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway – for £19.5 million.
The move follows the sale of land for forestry earlier this year which sparked a major row over the way the estate treated sitting tenants, who claimed they had been evicted to make way for afforestation.
Buccleuch was accused of bullying and intimidation but was later found by Scotland’s Tenant Farming Commissioner, Bob McIntosh, to have acted in compliance with the law – although the landowner was criticised for not always following best practice.
This time Buccleuch has said that any sale of land encompassing tenanted farms would see current leasing agreements honoured.
Tenant farmers who live on their farms on long-term tenancies have been offered the opportunity to purchase their farms ahead of the open sale process.
Farms currently occupied on 1991 Act tenancies, which are secure agricultural leases, are not part of the sale.
Buccleuch chief executive John Glen said the estate expected the sale process to take some time and that he would keep tenants and staff at the estate informed.
Scottish Tenant Farmers’ Association director Angus McCall said the dispersal of land into smaller parcels was a welcome move.
However, he noted that existing tenants with short-term tenancy agreements would not qualify for a significant price reduction so affordability was an issue and it was likely that much of the land would be sold for tree planting.
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
