Securing community greenspaces for amenity and recreation
Quick Facts
Time frame: 2016 – present
Funding: The Scotttish Land Fund, £19,800
Project Background
In 2016 Fearann Eilean Iarmain (FEI) estates offered to sell land to the community through the Portree & Braes Community Trust. These pockets of land in and around Portree were included in FEI’s purchase of 23,000 acres of land in the south of Skye in the 1970s from MacDonald Estates. The land is incidental to the main FEI estate, but of huge significance to the community of Portree where green space is at a premium in Skye’s main town.
The following sites were originally offered for sale:
- Am Meall na h-Acairsaid (know as The Lump) – a natural amphitheatre which is the location for the annual Skye Games. The elevated site provides a good walking route and viewpoint for locals and tourists
- King George V Playing Field – of which 2.91 ha (7.2 acres) are leased to Highland Council on a 99-year lease from Whitsun 1949 for use only as playing fields/recreation
- Bayfield Amenity Ground (and Bayfield Boat House)
- Pairc nan Laoch (Skye Camanachd Shinty Pitch) – forms part of the shinty stadium in Portree and is leased to Skye Camanachd
- Sulaisiadar Common Grazing
The Scottish Land Fund award was used to carry out valuations of the land and to employ consultants to deliver a feasibility study, business plan and community consultation assessing the viability of bringing the land under community ownership. The studies would look at the opportunities to deliver environmental, social and economic benefit to Portree and Braes through securing and/or improving the lands identified. The consultants would also records residents responses to the proposals through an in-depth community consultion.
Reflecting on the studies the Trust concluded that it would not be financially viable to take The Lump or Sulaisiadar Common Grazing into community ownership. Meanwhile Pairc nan Laoch was generously gifted to Skye Camanachd by Lady Lucilla Noble of Fearann Eilean Iarmain estates in honour of her late husband Sir Iain Noble. There was however significant public support for the Trust to take ownership of the King George V Playing Field and the Bayfield Amenity Ground and so a community buy-out was pursued.
In 2020 the Trust were pleased to secure, again from the Scottish Land Fund, funds to take the identified land at Bayfield into community ownership. See here for more information on this project. The King George V playing field acquisition has, unfortunately, been delayed due to legal complications however the Trust is hopeful that matters will be resolved in 2026.
Click on the document links to download the completed feasibility study and business plan.