Andy Wightman

Anatomy of a bothy work party The work party crew. Photo by Juls Stodel. Everything had been planned in advance. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, we’d gathered all the tools and materials we needed, and made sure there wou…

How many people does it take to clean a bothy toilet in the middle of the #Cairngorms? More than you'd think!
cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/a...

The Scottish Four Seasons - Isla Ratcliff's 2nd Album A Scottish trad arrangement of Vivaldi's 300-year-old 'The Four Seasons', highlighting its dance tunes and Scotland's climate concerns

⭐️ My crowdfunder is live!!! ⭐️

I have just launched my crowdfunding campaign for my 2nd album, “The Scottish Four Seasons” - a Scottish trad reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s famous work to mark its 300th birthday!

I have 30 days to raise £11,000.

Thank you so much for your support!

Isla x

Indeed and that is the bonus track!

This should be good. I’ll be supporting what sounds like a fascinating album in the making bsky.app/profile/isla...

Who Owns Scotland July 2025. I now have documented a total of 4600 landholdings covering 75.9% of rural Scotland. This project is financed solely by subscription income. Please subscribe at whoownsscotland.org.uk

Griffin Forestry Estate Sold for £145 million - Land Matters The Griffin Forestry Estate comprises the Griffin and Moness estates in Perthshire either side of the A826 south of Aberfeldy. I have a personal connection with the forest as I planted much of it in m...

The 5,600 hectare Griffin Forestry Estate in Perthshire has been sold to Gresham House FF VI LLP for £145 million. With mature forestry and 68 wind turbines, it is probably the most expensive rural estate to have been sold in modern times. andywightman.scot/2025/08/grif...

Who Owns Scotland July 2025. I now have documented a total of 4600 landholdings covering 75.9% of rural Scotland. This project is financed solely by subscription income. Please subscribe at whoownsscotland.org.uk

Thousands of crofters warned over failure to confirm residency and land use Thousands of crofters are facing potential criminal proceedings after failing to return documentation confirming they live locally and are actively using their land. The Crofting Commission has begun ...

TENANTS of a few acres of bog & rock face criminal sanctions for not submitting return & confirming residence. But OWNERS of thousands of acres face no obligations to submit such returns or to be resident. Just one of many bizarre aspects of Scottish land law www.scottishlegal.com/articles/tho...

Salmond played his part but Swinney took the key planning decisions as Salmond had recused himself from having any role since he had met with applicants in his role as local MSP

As a consequence, those benefits (hotels, houses etc) have never materialised but the damage that they were supposed to outweigh has taken place. This is a gross failing of Scotland’s planning system for which Swinney is responsible. 5/5

The decision was eventually made by Swinney that the application should be approved because the economic and social benefits outweighed the environmental destruction. No conditions, however, were ever placed on Trump that he must actually deliver these benefits. 4/5

This unprecedented intervention was made in the aftermath of threats and bullying tactics by Trump’s team and was only done so as to keep the possibility of the application alive after Trump said he would not be appealing. 3/5

After Aberdeenshire Council had decided to refuse the planning application on 29 Nov 2007, Swinney took the extraordinary step of calling it in for him to determine AFTER the application had already been decided by the Council’s own planning committee. 2/5

It was not surprising to see that the only person invited by Trump to stand up at today’s golf course opening at Menie was John Swinney. It was he who resurrected Trump’s dreams of building a golf course that would destroy a Site of Special Scientific Interest. 1/5

£36 million net profit on £78 million turnover - almost 50% profit margin. Is this normal for law firms? Sounds like clients are getting ripped off.

Saw a post recently welcoming a new employee and commenting that the company now had a “higher talent density” which is when one thinks about it, a bit ambiguous

North Glenbuchat Update: Police Interveiw & False Certifications - Land Matters Following my previous blogs here, here and here on the topic of the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCIL), I am pleased to report that after much toing and froing I eventual...

BLOG - North Glenbuchat Police Interview and False Declarations andywightman.scot/2025/07/nort...

Who Owns Scotland June 2025. Now total of 4554 landholdings covering 75.75% of rural Scotland. This project is financed solely by subscription income & I will shortly reach the limit of the expansion & updating that is possible within existing resources. Please subscribe at whoownsscotland.org.uk

In light of Trump's forthcoming visit to Scotland, as a reminder (or refresher) on golf controversy, here's report setting out various aspects of the debacle. I wrote it to have a record of the story in detail with sources. More material (incl link to report) here andywightman.scot/hot-topics/t...

I am referring to the historic location of Muckhart in Perthshire relevant for land administration. All titles are recorded in Perthshire. I can’t comment on your 2nd point though nobody has claimed that the 100 or so folk attending were representative

Great evening yesterday in Muckhart, Perthshire talking to the community about its commonty and how it might be protected from further encroachment. I love the photo which was cheekily taken by Paul Ede. Will blog next month about this case.

The new voting system for mayors and PCCs: how it affects democracy This month’s elections for mayors and police and crime commissioners were contested under a revised voting system. In a post published yesterday, Alan Renwick found that this change had a substanti…

Great to see that the English Devolution Bill, published today, restores the Supplementary Vote system for electing mayors and PCCs.

In a blogpost last year, I set out why the switch to FPTP in 2022 was bad for democracy, and why reversing that move is good.

constitution-unit.com/2024/05/24/t...

Leave the nuts alone- they are for the birds! Although it’s lovely to see you 😎

North Glenbuchat Update: Police Interveiw & False Certifications - Land Matters Following my previous blogs here, here and here on the topic of the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCIL), I am pleased to report that after much toing and froing I eventual...

BLOG - North Glenbuchat Police Interview and False Declarations andywightman.scot/2025/07/nort...

Deary me. Permission refused.

Watch online: Andy Wightman: Who Owns Scotland? From Wed 20 Aug - Ten years ago Andy Wightman – a former Member of the Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Greens and a tireless campaigner over issues around land ownership and reform in Scotland –...

I am looking forward to appearing once again at the Edinburgh Inrernational Book Festival on 20 August. Come along... www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

What legal authority does HMRC have to force me to buy software I don't want in order to comply with their Making Tax Digital proposals? I thought my legal obligation was to submit a return & its up to me how I organise my accounts.

Estate ownership questions raised after two men charged in relation to alleged illegal killing of Red Kites in Cairngorms National Park On 2 May 2025, Police Scotland issued a press statement about how two men had been charged in relation to the illegal killing of Red Kites in the grouse moor-dominated Strathdon area of the Cairngo…

Forensic analysis by land reform campaigner @andywightman.scot shows how difficult it still is to identify the beneficial owners of some Scottish estates, despite new legislation that was supposed to make it easier.

raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/07/07/e...

Sitka Spruce at 796 metres in Argyllshire

Land Reform – 25 Years of performance politics - Land Matters With Stage 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill proceedings now concluded, it is time to take stock of where we are, not just with the Bill, but with the wider land reform agenda. In this blog I want ...

BLOG - Land Reform: 25 years of performance politics. Thoughts in the aftermath of the conclusion of Stage 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. The Bill remains ineffective and structural land reform feels as far away as it did before 1999. andywightman.scot/2025/07/land...