A 1960 article in theAgricultural History Review noted instances ofIron Agesquatting.[1] Squatting was criminalised in 1865 by theTrespass Act.[2] The number of cases which come to court are small: between 2007 and 2011, the average number of prosecutions was 13; between 2005 and 2010, there were 26 convictions.[2][3]: 74 Adverse possession does not exist inScots law, but a similar concept is positive prescription, which only applies to land. In order for positive prescription to be successful the applicant must firstly hold a deed in either theRegister of Sasines or a title in theLand Registry, and secondly must have had possession of the land for a time of ten years, meeting various conditions.[4] According to author and politicianAndy Wightman, Scotland has seen four waves of squatting in which powerful interests stole land from the Scottish people. He names these asfeudalism, thereformation, the division of thecommonties and the foundation of theroyal burghs.[5]
Following theHighland Clearances,land raids occurred across rural Scotland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[6] Irish land reform proponentMichael Davitt was enthusiastically received when he did speaking tours in 1882 and 1887.[7] The Vatersay Raiders lived in bad conditions on the islands ofBarra andMingulay so they decided to occupy land onVatersay. The absentee landlordEmily Gordon Cathcart took them to court and they received two-month prison sentences in 1908. After an uproar they were released and Cathcart paid their travel home. Eventually the state purchased the island and it was divided up intocrofts by theCongested Districts Board.[8][9] TheSeven Men of Knoydart carried out a land raid as late as 1948 as part of a publicity campaign for land reform on theKnoydart peninsula.[10]The Colony was a squatted commontie in theBennachie hills for 100 years starting in the 1930s.[11] In 1946, a squatters movement rose up similar to the one inEngland and Wales in places such asEdinburgh,Glasgow,Peterhead andWigtown. Derelict army camps were squatted as well the ex German consulate in Glasgow.[12] The 1865 Trespass Act was used to prosecute squatters.[3]: 80
Two squat actions were carried out asroad protests. The Pollok Free State unsuccessfully fought plans to extend theM77 motorway throughPollok Country Park, whilst acamp at Bilston contested the construction of a bypass.[13][14] In 2011, the former site of theForest Café was briefly occupied by 100 people protesting against the lack of community spaces in Edinburgh.[15]
^Wightman, Andy (2005).Land Reform and Land Restitution in Post-Feudal Scotland(PDF). Squatters or Settlers: Rethinking Ownership, Occupation and Use in Land Law. Onati, Euskadi: International Institute for the Sociology of Law.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2019-05-15. Retrieved2022-06-11.
^Boyd, Graham; Callander, Robin; Wightman, Andy (2004)."Common Land in Scotland: A Brief Overview"(PDF).Commonweal of Scotland – Working Paper No. 3 (Issue 1). Caledonia Centre for Social Development.Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved15 June 2022.
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