Udal tenure; udal rights and conflicts over them; overfishin...

Original Track ID

SA1986.38.A

Original Tape ID

SA1986.038

Summary

Udal tenure; udal rights and conflicts over them; overfishing of salmon.

John Scott lives in Gardie House, built in 1724 by John Henderson [sic] of Unst, who made good in the fishing following the exit of the Hanseatic merchants who'd previously controlled the trade. Udal tenure has been described by an Orkney crofter as "from the heavens above your croft to the centre of the earth below your croft." It was more likely to apply to a croft that had never been part of an estate. However, one croft on Unst that had been part of the Garth Estate was by common knowledge a udal holding, though this was not mentioned in the deeds.

As well as their rights under feudal law, crofters under udal law had rights to peats and to the foreshore. This meant that bodies such as the Nature Conservancy Council had to deal with a great many people when trying to apply restrictions. There was a lack of understanding of udal law and different interpretations of its provisions in Orkney. In the Scotts' estate deeds there is no reference to udal law, although in a 1901 legal case against the Harbour Trust, the estate successfully claimed udal rights to the foreshore. The Crown Estate subsequently tried to claim rent for no-longer-existent piers on foreshore owned by the Scotts.

Traditionally, crofters had the right to set a salmon net on the foreshore below their holdings, though this is no longer pursued on Bressay [by 1986]. Udal law also conferred the right to take seaweed. Disputes involving landowners' attempts to claim whales and driftwood on their tenants' foreshores are recorded. Further conflicts took place between the Shetland Anglers' Association and crofters regarding netting. Mr Scott blames excessive crofter netting for a disastrous diminution in salmon stocks over the last two decades. Nets properly used would not cause a problem. Mr Scott was instrumental in a failed attempt to set up a Salmon Fisheries Board.

Item Notes

Mr Scott later corrected himself: the house was built by Magnus Henderson. The Nature Conservancy Council was replaced in 1991 by Scottish Natural Heritage (and by other bodies in other parts of the UK).

Recording Location

Item Location

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good