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Hill of Steinswall above Asta Loch


clanchief
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Most hill ground, assuming its outrun grazings utilised by local crofters (which virtually all Shetland's open hills are) is governed by a local Grazings Committee/Peat Committee etc.

 

Its those people who will be the first to object if there's a problem, as the Committee manages and oversees the grazing on behalf of all eligible crofters, and any activity that disturbs or could potentially disturb livestock and their ability to roam and graze at will would be addressed by them first.

 

SGRPID in Charlotte House should have a list of all Grazings Committee Clerks (each one handles the Admin for a specific Committee) for Shetland, which should tell you who to make contact with initially.

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^^ All hill ground is still the property of either the old lairds inheritor(s), or in most cases some nominal trustees (ie. Symbister, as they went bust) or a largely disinterested recent buyer who acquired the remnants of an old laird's estate usually for reasons other than the hill ground (ie. Busta and the SIC).

 

A normal sale of a croft by an estate does not normally include the sale of the accompanying hill ground, rather the sale includes the grazing rights to a certain proportion of a certain area of hill ground, the ownership of the hill ground itself remains with the estate.

 

However as the ownership of the grazing rights is with the entire group of crofters who possess a share in them for any given piece of hill, and remains managed communally by them regardless of whether the crofter who has possession of each individual share of the grazing rights owns their share outright (ie. they've bought their croft) or whether they hold it as a tenant. In short, the Grazing Committee and the crofters they represent possess occupancy rights to the surface area of the hill ground, and exclusive control over everything that grows on and traverses over that surface.

 

In practical terms that means that although the outright owner, the laird only possesses power to become involved in such things as excavations extending beyond such things as normal drainage ditching, construction and the outright sale of any or all of the ground concerned. If driven by the Grazing Committe, the laird could simply veto it, end of story, however if driven by the laird it could only legally proceed with the agreement and cooperation of the Grazing Committee, or if that wasn't forthcoming, after the laird had adequately compensated the Grazing Committee for any grazing lost or damaged.

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^^ To be on the safe side I'd recommend getting permission from someone who is a member of the relevant Grazing Committee for whatever the area is in question. The Committee is there look after everyone's interests and to speak for everybody. The trouble with just getting permission from one crofter is that while in theory he has a right to the whole area of ground, its not an exclusive right, its a right shared equally with everyone else. You could easily end up in a situation where one crofter said "okay, crash on no problem", yet another tell you to clear off immediately or he'd have you arrested, and they'd both be within their rights to do what they did.

 

Getting permission from the Committee, all the crofters involved are duty bound to accept the Committee's decision, or fight it out with the Committee, not you.

 

In my experience of such things it would only have been the clerk or Chairman who would have felt they had authority to give an answer immediately, others would have tended to run the request past some more committee members, then get back to you. Other Committees/areas may well vary though.

 

Its not an issue a Laird would normally have had any interest in, or power to act over.

 

As regards folk actually bothering gettng permission, in any hill I've been invoved in (Ness) there are so few things to shoot that it never really was an issue. The hills are at an altitude that few rabbits venture up so far, and its rare to see any sort of game bird. You'd see the odd hare, but that was about the limits of it. I don't doubt that occasionally someone driving by with a gun with them seeing a rabbit or hare wouldn't have tried a pot shot, but it was on such a small scale nobody was really aware they had unless you found the remains of a corpse. I have no doubt though that had there been enough game to encourage anyone to spend time in the hill stalking and shooting it, that very much sooner rather than later one or more of the shareholders would have approached them, or at least contacted the Committee asking them to take action.

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Thanks again Ghostrider ita all a bit complicated but i get the picture.Speaking of hares iwas recently speaking to a guy i know from yell and he told me there are no hares up there which seems strange as i would have thought it would be perfect for them with all those thousands of acers of moorland. It might be a good idea to try stocking a few .The only problem would be catching a few i suppose not really sure how you could do it.

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Thanks Ghostrider for that very detailed reply.Im still a bit confused would premission to shoot from 1 crofter who has hill rights cover you to shoot all over the estate or would it have to be the laird.Does anyone bother to get premission at all.

 

Would some individual or organisation not 'own' the shooting rights to the hill? I always thought that shooting and fishing rights were formal titles which could be sold or otherwise transferred between parties. While in most instances the rights belong to the landowner, this may not always be the case. I would think that, legally, you would need permission from whoever had the shooting rights. It would of course be courteous and sensible to also seek permission from the owner/s of any livestock you might disturb.

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Since writing my last post i remembered that i once did catch a young hare many years ago while at da troots at the greista loch in tingwall . i managed to corner a young levette and catch it in my landing net. while retreiving my prize in its terror it let out the most shrill scream iv ever heard before or since.Nedless to say the young levette made good its escape which was fine as i had intended it no harm and had only caught it for sport im afraid the hunting instinct is strong in me anyway such are the joys of a day in the hills in shetland long may they last.

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