A storm in the Western Isles.

This article focuses on various issues concerning the Land Reform Act of 2003 in Scotland. The law granted crofting communities in the Galston estate the absolute right to buy land on which they live. The legislation, however has added a new dimension to land reform by giving crofting communities the right to buy when the landlord does not want to sell. The Act has angered the old order, the order that has allowed more than half of rural Scotland to be owned by some 350 people. Concerned about protecting their properties, rich lairds have threatened legal action against the Scottish Executive. The Western Isles are currently awash with projects for wind farms. Institutions such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds oppose the project stating the damage to wetland and moorland bird sites.