Campaigners walk 185-miles across Scotland for land justice

The 185-mile trek will see participants march between the Isle of Skye and Glasgow in September in a mission called “Just Walk.”

Organisers behind the event, Grassroots to Global, a Scotland-based group campaigning for political change and community empowerment, said the walk will “rekindle the spirit of those who resisted The Clearances, and who fought for Land Justice during the Crofters Wars.”

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The three-week-long excursion is also aimed at bringing conversations of land ownership in Scotland more to the fore.

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The campaign group points to the increasing number of private companies buying up large swathes of land in Scotland.

David Lees, from Grassroots to Global, said: “We see this very much in the footsteps of The Jarrow March in the ‘30s and the Marches for Jobs in the 1980s.

“Despite past campaigns, there are still huge land ownership issues and we now see venture capital companies buying up huge estates in Scotland.

“The march will allow us to highlight injustices, by drawing attention to a system where communities are often excluded from decision-making about the land they live on.”

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Covering almost 200 miles, the walkers are set to cross different types of land ownership, from community owned to venture-capital owned, Forestry Land Scotland property to private land.

“We will be holding up a magnifying glass to these different places as well as testing the right to roam,” Mr Lees said.

He said while traversing Loch Lomond, the walkers hope to speak to nearby communities about the Flamingo-land controversy.

Community Land Scotland (CLS), the main organisations behind community ownership in Scotland, supported the project.

Dr Josh Doble, CLS’s director of policy and advocacy, said: “We welcome this walk as a great opportunity to raise awareness of the archaic and deeply unjust issues around land ownership in Scotland.

“It’s a long walk, through an area where there is a wide variety of land ownership from corporate, to public, to various levels of private. 

“There are also some community owned landholdings en route, which we hope will provide inspiration for what is possible in terms of local economic, social and environmental development if more communities take ownership of land. 

“The over-concentration of land in so few private hands is highly unusual globally and Just Walk can help raise public awareness of the need for radical change.”

The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is currently being debated in the Scottish Parliament and is at stage two, where it has seen more than 500 amendments.

It has faced major criticism from rural organisations, including estates membership organisation Scottish Land and Estates (SL&E) which claimed some measures, including the breaking up of estates, will result in lasting damage to Scotland’s rural economy.

Others have argued the paper does not go far enough in splitting large land holdings.

According to a blog post written last year by land campaigner and former Scottish Greens MSP Andy Wightman, 433 landowners owned 50 per cent of the privately-owned rural land in 2024 compared to 440 in 2012.

The “Just Walk” walkers will leave from Broadford on Skye on September 17 across the hills out of Knoydart and on to Glenfinnan. After crossing the Corran Ferry, the marchers head for Ballachulish and Glen Coe, before following the West Highland Way to Carbeth and finishing at the Broomielaw in Glasgow on October 7.

Organisers said around 70 people have shown an interest so far.