The Falkland land owner keeping woodlands accessible to all

FALKLAND's gates are already open and accessible to all to walk, cycle or drive in, park and enjoy the beauty of the broadleaf woodland.

That is in stark contrast to many of Scotland’s large estates – for example, Pippa Middleton’s father-in-law, David Matthews, bought the Glen Affric estate, which covers 10,000 acres of one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, and has recently blocked off a popular short trail around the loch that was accessible to less-fit people in a “mean-spirited” way.

There has been some limited land reform in Scotland. We have the right to roam on foot under certain circumstances (however, at Glen Affric new luxury housing dotted over the estate means that paths which overlook them can be blocked off) and there are some areas where communities have been helped to buy the land they live on.

But Scotland still has the most inequitable land ownership in the developed world.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government issued a consultation paper suggesting that a public interest principle should be applied when large estates change hands – but should that be only when they are sold, or should it include inheritance? Why are individuals still allowed to acquire huge tracts of Scotland as a birthright?

It must be acknowledged that public ownership is not an absolute guarantee of access – Pollok Park was preserved by the Maxwell family for 700 years. Just 30 years after they gave it to the city of Glasgow in 1966 to be kept as a public park in perpetuity, the city fathers drove the M77 through it, in the teeth of local opposition, demolishing seven miles of forest and cutting off access to the park from local housing schemes.

The short film Given To The People spotlights the failed protest against it.

Back at Falkland, local resident Tara O’Leary is positive about the idea of the estate passing from the hands of one person to the community: “I would be in favour of a democratic trust being formed to take over part of the estate, perhaps the woodland. The move to community ownership is happening all over Scotland and this community has a lot of good people with relevant expertise.”

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For some, the prospect is exciting and can’t come soon enough. But others are nervous about how it will play out in reality.

David MacDiarmid of the SNP, who represents the Howe of Fife ward on Fife Council, has worked with Ninian since he took over 32 years ago and is aware of his hard work and commitment.

MacDiarmid said: “To be honest, I would be keen for Ninan to keep doing it for as long as possible. A community body will inevitably contain different visions – at the moment there is one person at the helm. Ninian is easy to deal with. He is a very gentle man. He always speaks softly and he tries to get agreement.

"Before Ninian took over there was a real feeling of them and us between the community and the estate. It isn’t like that now. Falkland Estate is open to us all to enjoy. But nobody pays to go in; it is not run as a money-making enterprise. They do make some money from the cafe, selling farm produce, hosting weddings and so on. 

“But Ninian and his staff have also worked very hard over the years to attract charitable funding and they have been very successful. There has been a lot of investment in the estate.”

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One example of this was seen when a popular path called Maspie Den, created in the 19th century, collapsed and had to be closed to walkers. The bill for repair was in the tens of thousands of pounds, but the estate managed to organise funding and repair.

There is also a long tradition here. Ninian is a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce. One of Ninian’s ancestors, the third Marquess of Bute, acquired the home of his mentor Onesiphorus Tyndall-Bruce, a scion of a Bristol slave-owning family, almost 150 years ago.

It was once the hunting ground of the Scottish royal family – Mary Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting, known the four Marys, would dress as men to ride out with birds of prey. More recently, scenes in the TV series Outlander were filmed in the village.

There is a moss-covered chapel in the grounds, the solid stone walls topped by an empty rectangle that frames the sky. The Crichton Stuart family started to build it in the 1910s, after the death of the three-year-old heir, also Ninian.

A few years later, the child’s father and Keeper of the Palace, Captain Ninian Crichton-Stuart also died, leading troops over the trenches in the Battle of Loos. The chapel was never finished and its roofless state is a memorial to the First World War.

Ninian describes himself as having always been “deeply ambivalent about privilege”. After attending Ampleforth College, he ran away from his planned future to live and work with homeless people.

After inheriting the estate from his father, Major Michael Crichton Stuart – himself badly wounded in the Second World War – in 1991, Ninian opened the wrought iron gates at the entrance. The 4000-acre estate comprises woodland, farms and the A-listed Falkland House, formerly used as a school, which was in need of a multi-million-pound roof repair.

The house was between 1951 and 1983 St Ninian’s, a Christian Brothers school for orphans which was found by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to be the site of horrific sexual abuse.

The palace itself, and the grounds, are looked after by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) after an agreement made in 1952 by Ninian’s father. The NTS is officially deputy keeper.

There is plenty of work for someone – or some people – to do here to maintain the estate, but it is never easy to let go and the details of how this will work are not at all clear.

Also on the podium at the event on July 1 will be Louise Armstrong of  Stewarding Loss, which “supports civil society organisations to die” in times of transition.

She said: ‘For centuries, succession through male bloodlines and family has been the norm. But as our world changes, the needs and realities of farms and farmers change and there are other options.” Stewarding Loss provides emotional support: “There are many legal and financial advisers in the field but emotional, narrative, human support is often absent in these tender times of transition.”

Another landowner, Priscilla Gordon-Duff, will make the case for keeping land in the family, and describe how they are making that work at Drummuir Farm in Aberdeenshire.

Ninian is 66 and aspires to work a bit less and step back at some point. His two children can help with the transition but they don’t expect to inherit the role. However, they will still have a place at Falkland.

Ninian is also a founding member of the 1000 Huts movement to create opportunities for Scottish city-dwellers to build but-and-ben cabins for recreation on long-term-leased countryside plots. Ninian has planning permission for 15 huts and built the first one in a woodland glade, a place where he likes to take time to contemplate the future.

The Succession event is part of the programme at GO Falkland – a fringe event for Groundswell, the Hertfordshire-based regenerative agriculture festival – at Falkland Estate on July 1. Day tickets cost £24-£84. Camping tickets are also available separately