Woodland crofts are an opportunity for individuals and communities to build lives and livelihoods based on a woodland resource. They are governed by a combination of crofting legislation and forest regulation, linking housing, local rural livelihoods and woodland management.

The Crofting Reform Act 2007 amended the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 to allow new crofts to be created within the crofting counties and in other parts of Scotland in areas designated by an order made by Ministers. Applications to create new crofts must be made to the Crofters Commission by the owner of the land, which could be a community organisation such as a community woodland group.

The exact nature and extent of woodland management is not prescribed, and there is considerable flexibility for individual woodland croft tenants to manage their crofts to meet their own needs and aspirations. However, the approach to management taken by woodland crofters is expected to deliver increased social, economic and environmental benefits.

• Woodland crofts, smallholdings, woodlots and huts. CWA Information Note no. 13

• Episode 9 – Let’s Talk Better Forestry Podcast with Jamie McIntyre. Forest Policy Group

• The Woodland Crofts website aims to encourage, support and advise both existing and prospective woodland crofters. It brings together in one place existing information and guidance on woodland crofts, what they are and how they have come about.

• See the HIE Crofting Guide

Please complete the Woodland Crofts Registration Form, see list of documents in @other Useful Resources’, if you wish to be included in the register of people seeking a woodland croft.

As woodland crofts are only available in the Highlands & Islands it is aimed primarily at residents of this area & those wishing to move here. However there is space within the form to indicate your interest in similar models of woodland tenure outwith the Highlands and Islands.

Please return completed form by e-mail to Woodland Crofts Registration Form to info@woodlandcrofts.org, or by post to HSCHT, 5 Ardross Terrace, Inverness, IV3 5NQ

• Woodland Crofts: Q & A

• Woodland Crofts: Route Map

• Woodland Crofts: Housing and Development

• Woodland Crofts: Forest Management

• Woodland Crofts: Benefits Checklist

• Woodland Crofts: Allocation Guidance
  Guidance on the selection of tenants for new woodland crofts

• A Short Guide to Rural Housing Bodies and Rural Housing Burdens
  Information on a right of pre-emption which enables future sales of affordable housing to be controlled

• Woodland Crofts: Guidance
  A basic introduction to issues relating to woodland crofts

• Hutting