A "real" farmer would despair at the quality of the thin, rocky soil. He would mock the third-hand, obsolescent machinery and shake his head in disbelief at the size of these agricultural units - an average croft has just 5ha of arable land and a share in common grazings out on the exposed heather hills.
The informed observer would also conclude fairly quickly that Scotland's crofting system has little in common with modern agribusiness. Sheep and lambs appear to wander at will and graze randomly by the side of single-track roads, a herd of cattle might comprise just three cows. The infrastructure is often rickety or non-existent and the nearest markets or abattoir can involve a long ferry trip or a trek of hundreds of miles. In many areas there appears to be no productive land-based activity at all.
The economics do not really add up and few crofters would claim the land or the livestock it produced was their only source of income. But that is the point. This is time-warp agriculture which endures because of the broad portfolio of other economic activity such as fishing, tourism, forestry, teleworking or other work undertaken by every crofting family. And while the individual smallholdings are tiny, the communal crofting land resource of 750,000ha in the most marginal geographical areas gives crofting serious political and bargaining clout. Just a glance at the available incentives - attractive croft housing grants, a subsidised bull hire scheme and generous support to plough, fence or erect buildings - tells you that.
So it is perhaps not surprising that, at a time when big hill and upland units are struggling to make ends meet and the exodus of livestock from the hills shows little sign of abating, the system has many advocates who argue that this ancient, part-time form of farming could be a sustainable model for 21st century agriculture.
Drew Ratter, the convener of the regulatory body, the Crofters Commission, is one.
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| Fergus and Susan Walker. |
"There's absolutely no doubt that small-scale highly productive agriculture will have a future," he said. "We need to get crofting extended on to better land and give a wider number of people a foothold in food production."
Donald Murdie is a crofter on the north-west corner of the Isle of Skye, whose part-time job involves managing the Crofting Resources Programme, funded by the Scottish Government and other agencies.
Promoting co-operation
"If a hill farm of many thousands of hectares can't make a living there's a case for turning that land into crofts where a number of families could live and grow their own food and do other forms of employment at the same time," said Mr Murdie. "That's how crofting works and that's why it's suited to today and tomorrow.
"One of the main strands of the programme is to foster and promote the tradition of co-operation by people working in sheep or cattle stock clubs. It's vital to mainstream agriculture because lambs and calves produced in these crofting townships a source of hardy, high-health store stock for Scotland's lowland farmers."
The arguments are supported by Patrick Krause, chief executive of the Scottish Crofting Federation, who pointed out that the focus of the CAP is moving towards rural development and away from pure agricultural support.
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| Alastair Nicolson. |
"Europe is looking at models of small-scale food production and land management as being far more environmentally friendly and producing more traceable, good, wholesome food. So the writing's on the wall and the future is for crofting," said Mr Krause.
It sounds convincing, but dig a little deeper into the reality of making a living on this land and you discover that many crofters cling to their way of life as a result of tradition or a sense of duty and because it offers a large degree of freedom and self-sufficiency. The age structure is causing real concern, with most crofters now over 65 and many young people disillusioned.
Camuscross township has some of the smallest crofts on the island and eking a living from this poor, hilly land is undoubtedly a triumph over adversity. The Walker family is an impressive example. On the Walkers' two-acre plot they have erected a large polytunnel, grow all their own vegetables and potatoes in odd fertile corners, have a small flock of hens and out on the hill they run four cows (one for milk) and some of the excess meat is sold to neighbours. Susan Walker said the family's hard labour is not done with a view to making money.
"It depends how you measure profit," she said. "Crofting isn't profitable if you compare it to some large-scale farm but, if you're talking about environmental profit or cultural or social profit, then this system hugely outweighs industrial farming. The crofts on this township are only two to three acres and there are 37 crofts with 150 people living on them. Compare that to one big farm in East Anglia where there might be only one person employed. You are creating a whole community here on a small area of land."
Lifestyle
Fifty miles north, Alastair Nicolson fits his IT consultancy work around his herd of Highland cattle on the township of Borve, but he admitted his croft did not make enough money to compensate for the hours of work he invested.
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| John Angus MacCusbic. |
"But that's not what it's about. It's a lifestyle and I have an obligation to the landscape to maintain it for future generations, from a wildlife point of view," he added.
At Totarder, John Angus MacCusbic has 35 acres and a share in the Sheepstock Club and describes himself as a full-time crofter and part-time contract shepherd.
His wife works, too, and it is only because of the numerous income strands that the family gets by financially. Yet he would not contemplate any other way of life.
"I grew up doing it and I believe it is more in tune with nature than mainstream farming. But I don't know that I'd recommend it to the next generation because there's little financial reward," he said.
Crofters have clearly learned to live with low expectations of financial rewards so it is not economic pressures now posing the greatest challenges to this model of land use. Instead it is two apparently conflicting trends.
The first is the problem of absenteeism and neglect which has plagued crofting for generations and largely stems from the complex legislation originally established to protect vulnerable tenants.
It means it is extremely difficult to remove a crofting tenant from his land even if his family hasn't worked it for generations or if they now live permanently elsewhere. In some townships where the level of absenteeism has passed the tipping point there just are not enough people to do communal work and the land lies abandoned.
The other overriding influence on crofting, particularly in the most desirable areas like the Isle of Skye, is the demand for house sites from incomers who have no interest in using or working the land. The lucrative deals have tempted many crofters to sell their small areas of arable land for housing and this has permanently closed the door to any future self-sufficiency or crofting way of life.
The combined problems of absenteeism and wealthy incomers have meant the young people who want to croft have virtually no hope of getting their own land.
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| Cameron Rae. |
Cameron Rae, a young apprentice stonemason in Skye who is keen to croft but has no family connections to the land, is a good example. It is highly unlikely a crofter will assign a croft to him and buying one is an extremely expensive and unviable option.
He is frustrated and speaks for many young people in a similar situation. "There are many crofts that are abandoned, which doesn't make me feel good when there are people like myself who want them and they're holding on to them for no reason at all."
There is, however, an underlying belief among all those who have a connection to crofting that it won't just endure in the traditional heartland but will provide a model for a more sustainable, wider farming sector.
As head of the Crofters Commission Drew Ratter probably has more insight than most and his words could be prophetic. "Crofting's day is coming," he said. "That's our vision of the future."