Alyth up in arms at 'theft' of landmark

SIXTY-TWO years ago, more than 1,000 angry residents of the Perthshire town of Alyth stormed the hill overlooking their community in a major show of strength to assert their rights to the land.

They tore up the fencing put up by a local farmer trying to stake his right to the hill, which townspeople claim has been in common ownership for at least 600 years.

Now the people of Alyth are preparing to go to battle once more over the "commonty" of Alyth Hill in a dispute with Scotland's biggest landowner, the Forestry Commission.

The row flared after a group of residents restored a panoramic dial at the top of the 984ft hill and placed a new brass plaque on the supporting column, inscribed with the words 'The Commonty of Alyth Hill, owned for at least 600 years and for all time by the people of Alyth'.

Within a few days the plaque had been taken away by the commission, which claims to have taken ownership when the agency bought the farmland on the hill for 2.2 million in 2007.

Furious residents have formed a 20-strong action group to challenge the commission's claims to what they assert is the largest and most important commonty still in existence in Scotland.

Richard Price, a spokesman for the commonty action group, claimed that the commission had no legal right to remove the plaque from the dial and that it was for the commissionto produce proof of ownership.

He said: "A commonty is not some sort of quirky ancient old custom. It is regulated by law and Alyth Hill has belonged to the people of Alyth for at least the past 600 years."

The townspeople believe that proof of the commonty comes from a decree issued by the Sheriff of Perth in 1513 which asserts that "the tenants have been in peaceable possession of common pasture for their beasts, winning of feal (sic), casting turves and peats in the Hill and Myre of Alyth past memory of man without interruption."

Price, 58, a crofter and commercial diver who has lived in Alyth for 20 years, said: "At the beginning of August somebody took a hammer and chisel and crowbar to the plaque and wrenched it out and we reported it to the police. I wrote to the commission, asking if they could throw any light on it and to my staggering amazement they wrote back, saying they had done it."

Price said the commission had no right to remove the plaque as it had no legal claim to the land on which the panorama dial was sited.

He added: "We believe that in 2007, when the Forestry Commission came in and bought the farms at the foot of the hill, that none of the potential purchasers were alerted to the existence of the commonty. The farmland and the commonty is completely separate and the Hill of Alyth commonty which covers 160 hectares is clearly delineated. It is open hill which has only been used for rough grazing in the past.

"During the 600 years or more of common ownership, no formal division of the commonty has ever taken place and it thus remains in the hands of Alyth folk."

Mr Price added: "I have been begging them to research their own title but they are not prepared to devote the resources. I got a letter from their estate department which said ‘We are not prepared to devote resources to this complicated and potentially fruitless quest'.

Bill "Walla" Mollison, 73, a retired foreman in the building trade, was still at school when his father John took part in the storming of the hill in 1948.

Mollison recalled: "A local farmer fenced the hill and more than 1,000 folk - nearly the whole of Alyth - went up the hill and tore the fence down. They were absolutely furious. Folk were threatened with arrest but nothing ever happened."

He argued that the right of the feuars of Alyth to the commonty was "beyond dispute".

"On my title it says that, in the event of the land being divided, I get a portion of a part of the hill," he said. "But the hill has been undivided since, we think 1200, and we want it to stay that way."

A spokesman for Forestry Commission Scotland said: "The purchase of Westfield Farm and adjacent lands included ownership rights over Alyth Hill. As the largest landowner in Scotland, the commission manages the national forest estate to maximize the benefits for biodiversity, the economy and local communities."

He added: "The brass plaque was removed because it was put in place without permission, by means of unauthorized vehicular access and because it was worded in such a way as did not recognise the Commission's ownership."

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