How to Use this Site


This website is designed to enable you, the user, to find out who owns land in Scotland. It also contains other information on the topic of landownership including summary reports and analyses of various kinds, reports and papers and links to other sites of interest. For this information go to the Further Information page. The core of the site, however, is the collection of individual property pages which can be searched to find out details of particular landholdings. To help you find what you are looking for we have provided the following notes. which include assistance in interpreting what you find guidance to further information you can find elsewhere in the site. Coverage Our aim is to cover 75% of the privately-owned rural land in Scotland.

Scotland land area	19 068 631 acres	100%
Urban land	585 627 acres	3%
Rural land	18 483 004 acres	97%
Of the 18 483 004 acres of rural land, 2 275 768 acres are in the ownership of public bodies and 16 207 236 acres are in the ownership of private bodies. The survey is designed to capture 75% of privately-owned rural land and thus the target acreage is 12 155 427 acres.We estimate that this will comprise all landholdings above a threshold of around 400 acres. In order to do this we plan to expand the site county by county including initially only the largest properties (those over around 500 acres). One this is done, we will find out how much is left to do and fill in the gaps by progressively lowering the property acreage threshold until we have achieved our 75% target. Phase II and III will aim to extend this coverage to 85% and 95% of all privately-owned land - probably around 20,000 landholdings. Thus there is no guarantee that you will find the information you are looking for at the moment either because we have not published the particular county or because the area of land falls within the 25% yet to be researched. How do I find out the ownership of a parcel of land? This depends what information you already have. If you have a name of a person or property, you can try the text search facility. This will deliver any person or property found with that name. Alternatively, if you know which pre-1974 county the property is in you can proceed straight to the county home page and go to Listings of Properties and persons. Scan these to find the name you are interested in. Remember that, although the search facility will find any reference to the name in the details of ownership, in many cases land is held by companies and trusts. In some cases we know the names of these people and the search will reveal the property with which they have a connection. However, in many cases we will not know them and thus, although the property you are looking for might exist on the site, it will not yield to a search using any names other than those we know about. If all you have is a particular particular parcel of land in mind but no names, then use our (admittedly rather crude) map navigation function. Proceed to the county home page where you will see a map of the county. Either click on the red squares for more detailed maps or on any of the larger properties. You will then be taken to the individual property pages. The map navigation function is the most tricky technical aspect of the website and we are striving to develop a simple way to navigate using a map. There is a solution but it costs £9000! Meanwhile, alternatives are horrendously time consuming. See Mapping section in Technical Details page for further information. To search for ownership details by map navigation we recommend that you have a 1:50 000 OS Landranger map to hand. What does the information on the property pages mean? Property The property field provides the name of the landholding. We have determined what this should be as there is no definitive source for such names. In most cases of farms and estates, the name is straightforward (Cawdor Estate, Dulsie Farm etc.) but in cases where, for example, land has been amalgamated or where private forestry plantations have been established, the name may not be so clear. In such cases we will, by default, use any name which appears on the title deeds. Failing this we will use our judgment to provide a name which adequately describes the property. In some cases, large parts of a holding have been sold leaving a remnant. In such cases we have used the name of the estate followed by ‘remnant’ in parenthesis e.g. Coulmony Estate (remnant). NOTE: - For technical reasons there may be an apparent mismatch between the 1:50,000 digital mapping and the overlaid property. See Technical Details for further information. Grid Reference A six-figure OS grid reference is given which can help to locate the property with the aid of an OS 1:50,000 Landranger map. The most appropriate map is indicated in the field <OS Sheet>. County All data is organised by county based on the Scottish Counties which existed prior to local government reorganisation in 1974. This division continues to be the basis for the recording of legal titles in the Registers of Scotland and is the basis for all historical records. It thus makes sense to continue with a stable system of organisation. It should therefore be noted that the boundaries of the existing local authorities which call themselves, for example, Aberdeenshire, do not equate with the older and far longer established entities. Owner The name given here is the legal owner as recorded in the title deeds. Occasionally some abbreviation is made where the ownership is complex as in the case of, for example, a large landed estate where several trusts might have legal title. Hyperlinks are provided for some owners of the larger estates which will give you a pop-up window containing a brief biography. Owner address The address at which the owner (or principal beneficiary is ordinarily resident. This will usually equate with the address recorded in the electoral roll. In the cases of Companies, the address is the Registered Office as given in the records of Companies House. Property address The address of the property. This is only provided where there is a postal address for the property. An isolated forestry plantation will not have an address but farms and estates will have. This will differ from the owner’s address where the owner lives elsewhere. Website Any website connected with the property is included here. Further ownership details This field provides more details on the ownership of the property. It will provide (where known) the Trustees and beneficiaries of private trusts, the Directors and members of Limited Companies, or the proportional division of property between different co-owners. Contacts Usually this will be as per owner but in the case of larger estates will usually provide contact details for the estate manager and/or gamekeepers. Currency of Data Information on landownership is derived from title deeds recorded in the Registers of Scotland. When property is sold, details are submitted to the registers for recording in either the Register of Sasines or the Land Register. The details are then processed and recorded. The date given here indicates the date at which the information shown was last known to be correct with respect to recorded transactions. For example, suppose we research the ownership of a particular property (say, Ardmore Estate) on 1st April 2002. On that date the Registers will show details of ownership recorded up around a weeks or so prior to this (say 24 March 2002). The Currency of Data will be shown as 24 March 2002. Thus, there is no guarantee that the property has not changed hands since the date shown in this field (it might also have been sold prior to this date but not yet submitted for recording - delays of months are not unknown). We aim to conduct a rolling yearly update and so details of ownership should never be more a year out of date. Where we learn that land has changed hands through advertisement or press reporting, we will endeavour to update the records immediately. Register of Sasines Ref. If you wish to find out more details about the property then you should consult the definitive legal record held in the Registers of Scotland. Most properties are still on the Register of Sasines but by April 2003, any future sales of land (though not gifts or inheritance) will be recorded in the Land Register. reference numbers given here indicate the number of the Search Sheet on which deeds (narrating sales, mortgages, leases, some grant payments etc.) affecting the property are recorded. To locate this information, contact the Registers of Scotland. You will need the reference numbers AND a note of the relevant county. Where properties straddle county boundaries the county AND reference number is given to avoid confusion. Land Register Certificate No. A unique number which references the Title Number on the Land Register. The prefix letters indicate the county and so all that is required to locate the legal title is the full alpha-numeric code. Other information This is a field in which any further information thought relevant will be given. This often will provide a brief description for the more significant landed estates or highlight links to news stories or other documents of interest.




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