The huge lost potential of Scotland’s vacant and derelict land

The largest one is a huge parcel of land in Dumfries and Galloway, which used to be an MoD munitions site before it was closed in 2010. Then there’s a former oil fabrication yard at the Port of Ardersier on the Moray Firth.

Derelict land is commonplace, though most examples are less obvious than those examples – a rundown building you walk past on your way to work or a disused lot by a busy intersection.

Regardless, they are all sitting there unused – sometimes for decades.

READ MORE: Andy Wightman: Derelict Scottish land has been left neglected for decades

The Scottish Government’s latest register – published last month – lists 3201 vacant or derelict sites across Scotland. Collectively, they make up 9383 hectares – around 36.2 square miles.

This represents a slight decrease on last year but still amounts to roughly the size of Dundee and Livingston combined.

These vast swathes of land may be unloved – and in some cases complicated or expensive to clean up – but are far from a lost cause and ripe with potential.

Since 2016, Scotland – helped by the Scottish Land Commission – has cleaned up or developed more than a quarter of its vacant or derelict land, with housing being the biggest single new use.

Disused army base at Bogside in Ayrshire (Image: MJ Richardson)

Former MSP and land reform campaigner Andy Wightman told The National, however, that progress has been “slow”.

“It's only in the past few years that there's been a dedicated effort to do something about this,” he said.

“Historically, there's been a lot of it and I suppose it seemed a bit of a huge task.”

Wightman added that this land has huge potential for issues including housing and tackling homelessness.

Abandoned WW2 tower at Faern airfield (Image: Steven Brown)

Glasgow declared a housing emergency last year as the council expected an increase in homelessness cases.

Allan Casey, the city’s convener for workforce, homelessness and addiction services, said at the time: “There is no doubt that the pressures we are facing constitute an emergency.

“We agree with partners that we urgently need resources to help us deal with these added pressures.”

But in Greater Glasgow alone, there is 834 hectares of vacant or derelict land – which equates to roughly the size of 15 Glasgow Green’s, the city's oldest park.

Below is a map showing what this amount of unused land equates to in relation to Glasgow city centre. 

The amount of vacant land in Greater Glasgow is substantial (Image: Calcmaps)

Scotland’s biggest city also has one of Europe's lowest life expectancies, with academics at the University of Glasgow suggesting turning just 15 of Glasgow's derelict parcels of land into urban agriculture spaces would give 50% of the city an allotment space within 10 minutes walk of their home.

They suggested that freshly grown and high-quality vegetables could boost health in a city with some of the poorest health outcomes in the UK.

There are examples of success already in that respect, including the Shettleston Growing Project in Glasgow which has used reclaimed contaminated land to provide an urban garden for the community.

Wightman also stressed that Scotland is losing a substantial amount of revenue by under-taxing owners of vacant and derelict land.

Research he conducted in 2021 showed that 2199 non-domestic properties deemed derelict or vacant had a combined rateable value (RV) of £12,697,970.

But more than a quarter of said land – which was also in Glasgow – was given an RV of just £8500, or an average of £14 per site.