Letter: Land banked

I FOUND Scott Macnab’s article about the Waverley Market common good site (your report, 27 March) fascinating.

As a schoolchild I was taught about a large tract of monastic land which was gifted to the people of Dunfermline by Robert of Crail, the town’s abbot, in about 1322. The abbot in those days had great power, but he must have been a very benevolent ruler to grant many acres of pastureland in perpetuity to the ordinary people of Dunfermline, to do as they wished with, in return for a token annual fee – six pence or a pair of white Paris gloves.

Sadly, very little of Dunfermline’s unique gift is left and I suspect that is the case with common good land in Edinburgh too. Perhaps future generations of schoolchildren will be taught the story of how the benevolent ruler, Alex of Holyrood, gave the people’s £40 million inheritance to a multi-millionaire for 40 pence.

Tom Minogue

Victoria Terrace

Dunfermline, Fife