Highland Titles is run by the Bevis family, although they apparently live in Scotland they run their businesses from the tax haven of Guernsey. The Company is run under the created ‘charity’ with the grand title of ‘The Highland Titles Charitable Trust for Scotland’, also set up by Bevis. The charity is only registered in Guersey so it bypasses the laws and transparancy of being regulated by being a Scottish Charity. So their accounts are not public.

Anyway on with the story…

ROUND 1

It all began with some tweets from @loveandgarbage in response to the following ad Highland Titles put out as a general promotional tweet:

Love and Garbage blogger explains: “The other morning I was on twitter and saw a tweet from a twitter user called Highland Titles:

“Buy land in Scotland & you may style yourself as Lord or Lady of Glencoe! From £29.99.”

Now this raises immediate suspicions. and so I visited the website which was linked to from the tweet. For the Scottish property lawyer this is a mysterious hinterland that we rarely venture into. The site though was staggering.

It sells tiny plots of land, some of only a square foot in size.

This set alarm bells ringing. Scots law, since the introduction of land registration under the Land registration (Scotland) ACt 1979 has not allowed ownership of souvenir plots to be sold. Section 4 (2)(b) of the 1979 Act prevented registration of a souvenir plot…” (from https://loveandgarbage.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/i-cant-believe-its-not-ownership-or-the-curious-tale-of-highland-titles-selling/)

— Here are the original tweets —

@loveandgarbage
No you can’t. You’re talking bollocks @highland_titles Never heard of the rules prohibiting registration of souvenir plots?

@loveandgarbage
I see your website says you get a personal right to the plot @highland_titles. You know that means you don’t own it?

—Malcolm Combe joins in – a well known Scottish Lawyer—

@MalcolmCombe
@loveandgarbage ah, that just means you can transfer a wee plot without registration AT ALL. Because that makes sense. @highland_titles

@loveandgarbage
@MalcolmCombe I guess @highland_titles are well up on the 2012 Act and the implications of the 2000 ACt for barony titles.

@loveandgarbage
So basically your deal is pay us money to not become an owner of a bit of land in Scotland @highland_titles

@loveandgarbage
Do you think people are idiots? @highland_titles

@MalcolmCombe
@loveandgarbage Indeed. Finger on the pulse when it comes to Scots law (as applied via the Channel Islands). @highland_titles

—then Highland Titles joins in—

@highland_titles
Yes, the 2012 Act confirms the status of Souvenir plots – sold without registration http://tinyurl.com/ohu7mqk @loveandgarbage @MalcolmCombe

@highland_titles
We sell land. If you do not understand how land can be sold in Scotland, ask a Scottish lawyer http://tinyurl.com/ohu7mqk @loveandgarbage

—- this was brilliant and set the hounds racing as they didn’t realise who they were talking to—-

@MalcolmCombe
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Ha. https://twitter.com/highland_titles/status/565108747258064896 … cc @loveandgarbage, who really should speak to a Scots lawyer to clear this up.

— so loveandgarbage asks themselves—

@loveandgarbage
well @highland_titles . Hey, @loveandgarbage how do you sell land in Scotland?

@loveandgarbage
Well @loveandgarbage as a Scottish conveyance I am aware that the sale of land requires missives of sale then a conveyance @highland_titles

– lovenadgarbbadge proceeded to tell Highland Titles about Scottish Land Law

@loveandgarbage
And @loveandgarbage both require to be formally valid under the 1995 Act @highland_titles The conveyance is then sent for registration

– there were a good few more tweets from love and garbage about the law (see all at: Buy land in Scotland… style yourself as Lord or Lady of Glencoe! Or something.’ By Malcolm Coombe. A short Storify about Scots property law)

—basically it can all be summed up with this following tweet—

@loveandgarbage
when I suggested earlier you were talking bollocks @highland_titles this is because, as a Scots conveyancer, I see you’re talking bollocks

—Highland Titles replies for not registering the land sold were—

@highland_titles
If Souvenir plots had to be registered, the extra cost would be prohibitive http://tinyurl.com/ohu7mqk @loveandgarbage

@highland_titles
Thank you for your opinion, Bill. We prefer to take the advice of an actual Scottish solicitor http://tinyurl.com/ohu7mqk @loveandgarbage

— to which Ian Smart gets invited into the discussion—

@loveandgarbage
Hang on @highland_titles I’ll ask @ianssmart who is a former President of the Law society. Ian, is my analysis of land transfers accurate?

@ianssmart
@loveandgarbage @highland_titles I am happy to confirm that it is.

— Highland Titles get asked to loop their solicitor in—

—Yet more Scottish Lawyers start to see this and respond—

@HighlandLawyer
@MalcolmCombe @loveandgarbage Need to be infeft in land to call oneself Laird thereof, and can’t be infeft in souvenir plot…

—Highland Lawyer also links to what the Lord Lyon has to say ‘http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/776.html‘—

— sadly Highland Titles do not bring in their lawyer and proceed to block everyone in the conversation.—

You can read the full discussion at ‘Buy land in Scotland… style yourself as Lord or Lady of Glencoe! Or something.’ By Malcolm Coombe. A short Storify about Scots property law  There are some hysterical tweets from people that are well worth reading.
Coombe on Storify explains …
“Since the 17th century, ownership of land in Scotland has been tied to registration: put simply, if you are not registered as the owner of land, you are not the owner.”

(Malcolm Combe is a lecturer in law, former solicitor and an advisor to the Land Reform Review Group – oops!)

Highland Titles’ move was to block them all, this only set fuel to the fire ….

ROUND 2

The world of twitter is where not just lawyers but bloggers, journalist and politicians hang out. This twitter ‘gubbing’ was reported on at The Common Space.

Highland Titles Scam

Read their article at:
https://commonspace.scot/articles/314/highland-titles-land-sales-demolished-on-twitter-as-legal-bollocks The Common Space is the blog of the Common Weal think tank, which is used by political activists who want to create a better Scotland and lobbies for new policies. So bit of a hit there. Among regular contributors are the likes of Caroline Leckie and Leslie Riddoch; a journalist who has written extensively about land reform in Scotland.

ROUND 3

On our ScotClans Facebook page we reported on what was going on:

See the full feed at:
https://www.facebook.com/clanshops/posts/909954222390870
Although a few comments got removed we think by Facebook after we exposed one of the pro Highland Titles posters was a fake profile and reported it the argument continued on the page – HT owner Peter Bevis waded in with the usual personal insults which’ if you have ever found a spare three days to read the comments on this article you will be familiar with.  However my favourite moment from this one is here:

ROUND 4

Meanwhile in twitter land more and more people were joining in. Many of them lawyers involved in Property Law. It was going well and truly viral

ROUND 5

More blogs appeared reporting the story…

https://basedrones.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/highland-titles-scam/

ROUND 6

https://loveandgarbage.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/i-cant-believe-its-not-ownership-or-the-curious-tale-of-highland-titles-selling/

Love and Garbage systematically takes apart the highland titles land ownership ‘bollocks’ (their words)

KO!

While all this was going on Andy Wightman was doing the maths. How much land did they own, how much money were they taking. The money taken was all through the Guernsey based company so did not touch Scotland.

http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4152

His shocking conclusion was that if HT did indeed manage to sell all the land they had earmarked as souvenir plots then they would stand to rake in £479 MILLION! Now given that HT make a lot of noise about how they have donated a few thousand here and there to various local charities and that they have been busily upgrading footpaths and planting trees (the ones that cant quite manage to plant themselves) Andy quite rightly has asked just where the money is going.

Today is Friday the 13th, unlucky for some indeed. This story doesn’t look like its going to end here and no doubt we will see the usual suspects (and their fake profiles) adding comment below over time. HT have played fast and loose for too long and this time they have found themselves on the wrong side of A LOT of influential individuals. Twitter is a dangerous place to play these sorts of games, bloggers use twitter, lawyers use twitter and… politicians use twitter. It may alarm HT to know (if they are not already off the scale when it comes to alarms) that many of those twitter ‘trolls’ they blocked yesterday are not only followed, but read regularly, by senior people in the Scottish Government right up to and including the First Minister herself. The leader of a government that is just ending the consultation phase of a major land reform bill – talk about bad timing!

Today is also the anniversary of the Massacre of Glencoe – this dreadful event is why this place is so well known around the world and its been taken as an insult to many who bear the name MacDonald that companies have piggybacked on this event to peddle their wares. It could be that one of them may soon be left out in the cold.

The post Highland Titles’ Twitter Battle with Scottish Lawyers (result: home win) appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

The Glencoe Massacre Site Plaque – Image courtesy Deadline News

A plaque commemorating the victims of the Glencoe Massacre has been discovered in an Edinburgh antique shop, 40 years after it went missing. The cast-iron sign once marked the site where 38 Clan MacDonald members were murdered in 1692. The plaque is set to be returned to its original home near the Pap of Glencoe this week to commemorate the 320th anniversary of the massacre.

Said to be at least 100 years old, the plaque went missing sometime in the 1970s. In September last year, Edinburgh antique dealer George Pirie stumbled upon the sign and placed it in his shop window. He said the plaque was sold to him by someone who had it their possession for “several years”.

Its ­significance was only recognised when a woman – also a MacDonald – asked if it was the original which she had seen in Glencoe in the 1960s. Mr Pirie said: “She had a picture of her with the sign taken years before, but it had been a different colour at the time. We started chipping away at the paint and right enough, it was the same underneath.”

Morag McDonald said she recognised the plaque immediately from an old family photo which sits upon her desk at home. She said: “I remember my dad was always enraged that it had disappeared and never been replaced with anything to commemorate the scene of the massacre. He went on quite a bit about it over the years.”

Mr Pirrie said: “With this industry these exciting finds happen from time to time but this one is really quite significant.” He was then contacted by the head of the MacDonald clan and the Glencoe National Trust who were keen to restore the sign, but not before first being approached by numerous private buyers.

The antique dealer will travel to a special private ceremony in Glencoe this Thursday where he will gift the sign back to the clan members. The plaque’s discoverer Ms McDonald said she looked forward to seeing the sign once again in its rightful spot.

The Glencoe Massacre is commonly referred to as the ‘most appalling abuse of Highland hospitality’, in which 38 MacDonald of Glencoe clansmen were murdered on direct orders from the crown. The death warrant signed by King William III provided flames to fuel the Jacobite’s cause and subsequent rebellions, and contributed to generations of unease between the MacDonald and Campbell Clans.

The Glencoe Heritage Trust was set up by local crofter Alistair MacDonald, a descendant of the MacDonalds of Glencoe in order that this most scenic area of Glencoe remains in local hands. The acquisition of the land was a rare opportunity for the local community to ensure the preservation of this unique landscape, and to raise awareness of the historical importance of their land both locally and worldwide.

The post Glencoe Plaque Found in Edinburgh Antique Shop appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

A memorial stands at the site today, with the Scottish Socialist Republican Movement marching through the streets of the village of Glencoe to the memorial annually on the anniversary. This year, a copy of the proclamation instructing troops to massacre the MacDonalds (below) was set alight. In recent commemorations the group have filmed themselves burning a Union flag.

Following a series of Jacobite risings in 1689 (including the Battle of Killcrankie), newly crowned King William III sought to subdue rebellious Highlanders by offering them a pardon. An order was received that all clan chiefs must swear allegiance to the King by 1 January 1692 or be punished with the “utmost extremity of the law”. John Dalrymple, Master of Stair and Scottish Secretary of State, used the deadline to his own political advantage and set about hindering clans from signing their allegiance. He had a deep dislike for highlanders (particularly the MacDonalds of Glencoe) and felt their way of life was a step backwards for Scotland.

MacIain, chief of the MacDonalds, was still bound by oath to James Stuart, the deposed King in France. It was December 12 before James had released the clans from their oath and December 28 before a messenger arrived in the Highlands with the news. MacIain rushed to sign the oath but was delayed and detained by Campbell soldiers along the way. He eventually signed the oath late, but it was rejected by John Dalrymple in Edinburgh, providing a way for him to get rid of the MacDonalds once and for all.

A Campbell-dominated Argyll regiment arrived in Glencoe twelve days before the massacre, claiming the nearby fort was full. The MacDonalds, honouring the Highland hospitality code, duly gave the soldiers quarter in their own houses, with neither clan nor soldiers aware of what lay ahead. On the night of February 13, a blizzard howled through Glencoe, and the soldiers received orders that they were to kill all MacDonald clansmen. In the morning, 38 lay dead including the chief MacIain, with another 40 women and children dead as a result of exposure after their houses had been burned.

Many were able to escape the massacre with some historians claiming that some Campbell men, disgusted at their orders, alerted the families who had been their hosts, giving them time to wrap up for the terrible wintery conditions outside. News of the massacre provoked outrage around Scotland resulting in an inquiry conducted by the Scottish Parliament. Even though the orders had been signed by the King himself, the inquiry sought to exonerate the King and place the blame on John Dalrymple, who had resigned from his post. The whole matter was forgotten in a matter of months, even though it was suggested that the government should pay compensation to the surviving members of the MacDonald Clan.

You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds of Glenco, and put all to the sword under seventy. you are to have a speciall care that the old Fox and his sons doe upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in execution att fyve of the clock precisely; and by that time, or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be att you with a stronger party: if I doe not come to you att fyve, you are not to tarry for me, but to fall on. This is by the Kings speciall command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execu- tion without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings service. Expecting you will not faill in the full- filling hereof, as you love your selfe, I subscribe these with my hand att Balicholis Feb: 12, 1692 (signed) R. Duncanson For their Majesties service To Capt. Robert Campbell of Glenlyon

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The River Laroch

The journey started in Ballachulish. This small town has become well known for the slate which was quarried here from the late 1600s onwards and used in the expansive building in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The walk begins by crossing the River Laroch.

Looking back to Ballachulish

Soon the path rises up through Gleann an Fhiodh and begins to leave the village behind. The large mass of Beinn a’ Bheithir and the Laroch river keep you company on either side as you make your way through the glen.

Cairn to mark the top of the pass

After several miles of glorious solo trekking over the moor the head of the pass is reached and a small cairn marks the spot. Looking back from the cairn the distinctive Pap of Glencoe can be seen.

Glen Duror Forest

After a few more miles the path Enters Glen Duror and is swallowed up by the large area of forestry land. One last look back along the stunning valley and off into the woods!

Duror Forest

Walking through pine forest paths like this was a bit of an anticlimax after the stunning scenery of the last few hours. With dense pine wood on either side of a wide and quite industrial scale logging track and the distant sound of chainsaws in the woods I no longer felt alone in a wilderness, Those areas have their own beauty though and you do tend to concentrate on small details; a puddle overflowing with tadpoles or some unusual lichen. Finally through a gap in the trees I could see the hills of Ardgour in the distance.

Duror and journeys end!

After what seemed like an age the warren of forest paths ends and I emerge at the top of the village of Duror. Roughly 10 miles later and with my feet complaining a little its time for a rest and a well earned beer!

The post A Walk from Ballachulish to Duror. appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

The Signal Rock

A few days ago we were walking around the North end of Glencoe. A forest path eventually takes you to a rocky outcrop called “Tom a’ Ghrianain”. The legend has it that this hill was the site of a beacon which would be lit by the clan in time of emergencies or when they needed to rally the men of the clan. In this way it is very similar to the burning hill of MacKenzie legend. There is a legend that this beacon was last lit to signal the start of the infamous Glencoe Massacre in 1692.

The Gaelic name for this hill “Tom a Ghrianain” is translated into English as “The Hill of the Sun” and this gives us another clue about its significance going way back beyond the times of the MacDonalds who settled these lands. Possibly this was a site of ancient pilgrimage where people would gather to worship the sun.

Bidean nan Bian

Indeed what is interesting about this spot is how the setting sun in spring and summer bathes the side of the huge mountains that surround the glen such as Aonach Eagach and Bidean nan Bian making them look like great angry gods.

The post The Signal Rock of Glencoe appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

The Ice Age was more than just a never ending cold, or ice building up and flowing across the landscape; it carved that very landscape, obliterating what went before and providing a new canvass for nature to re-conquer once the glaciers finally melted. The geology of Scotland in places is billions of years old, and for the most part hundreds of millions of years old; but it has been sculpted over the last two million by repeated glacial episodes, the last of which began around 30,000 years ago and finally ended 10,000 years ago. But, what causes these events and what legacy have they left us?
 

Glen Doll in Angus – A landscape carved by Ice

The principal reasons that the earth experiences enhanced ice age events periodically are astronomical; and collectively termed the Milankovitch Cycles (named after the Serbian scientist, Milutin Milanković, who first made the connection). We assume that the planet meanders through the vastness of space in a uniform manner, fixed in place: but not so. Over time periods we cannot comprehend the earth wobbles about and shifts its patterns of orbit and rotation; and does so cyclically, repeating the pattern across the ages.

Each cycle has its extremes, and can individually trigger enhanced ice growth; but they peak at differing time intervals, and so it’s only when they click together that the results can be truly spectacular. They’re not the only factors involved, others include the strength or non-existence of the Gulf Stream, plate tectonics and mountain building, and many more – and to be honest we really don’t know how it all connects together. Still, 30,000 years ago, the Milankovitch cogwheels clicked into place and the Gulf Stream turned off; resulting in the rapid build up of ice at the poles and the southward advance of the polar front: the summer limit of pack-ice.

Initially as the polar front moved southward, Scotland experienced extremely cold winters, somewhat like Canada today; resulting in glacier ice forming in the Northwest Highlands, the Nevis Range, the Cairngorms and Lochnagar; plus winter sea ice probably reached as far as the Shetland Islands. This is colder than we’ve experienced in the last 10,000 years, but there was no respite and the mercury continued to drop. Ice ages don’t happen because of cold winters, they happen because of cold summers, where the ice and snow from the previous season doesn’t melt and it builds up, layer upon layer, until it starts flowing under its own weight towards the sea via a path of least resistance. The glaciers then pool in lower ground.

It would only take a couple of thousand years to go from small glaciers in the mountains to ice caps forming in places like Rannoch Moor, Royal Deeside and the Great Glen. Around 25,000 years ago large glaciers, the like we’d associate with Alaska today would be flowing steadily down our main valleys, to perhaps a thickness of 2000ft in the upland areas. By now there is glacier ice in the Southern Uplands, the Lake District, Yorkshire and Snowdonia; and large ice flows streaming through the Central Belt mainly towards the North Sea via Strathmore and the Forth Valley.

The glacial maximum came around 18,000 years ago, when the polar front which today is to the north of Iceland reached to Portugal. Scotland was now buried under an ice-sheet over 4000ft thick in places: akin to Greenland today; and it was small in comparison. The whole of Scandinavia was buried under a much thicker dome centered over the Baltic Sea, and North America groaned under the vast weight of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which may have been 10,000ft thick, and was over half as big again as the Antarctic sheet today. The result of all this water locked away as ice was a severe drop in sea levels: over 400ft lower than today. The North Sea didn’t was a meadowland, grazed by mammoths and other lost fauna during the short summer season. It is possible that people followed the game on to the plains; but we also know that the population of Europe was very low, and forced into cluster ‘refuges’.

From around 18,000 years ago the earth slowly warmed again and the cogs came out of sync; and by 13,000 years ago the British ice sheet, which had stretched to the English Midlands, and covered most of Ireland had gone. The ice itself had carved out a new landscape, digging deep into the rock as it ground its way to the sea. The picturesque fjord landscape of the west coast, deep valleys like Glencoe and Glen Muick, the rounded hills of the Southern Uplands and the sharp ridges of the Cuillin of Skye: all sculpted out of the bedrock by the sheer power of the glaciers. The melting of that ice had no less a dramatic effect either.

Glencoe – A typical U-Shaped valley

Most of the Highland valleys and all of the Lowlands are blanketed in debris either left directly by retreating ice, or washed out by meltwaters. Torrential flooding and reworking of sediment created terraces, gravel fans and deep, sandy deposits; in other places the retreating ice can be mapped by way of the unique landforms left behind, like the horseshoe shaped moraines dumped at the front of the glacier. Only the far northwest, where the landscape was heavily scoured, saw little deposition – giving us a glimpse of the immediate post glacial world of Scotland 13,000 years ago. But everywhere you look you will find evidence of Scotland’s Ice Age: from Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the deep lochs of the Great Glen; and from the macro to the micro.

Global temperatures dropped again around 11,500 years ago, and there was further ice growth in the Highlands, but by 10,000 years ago the last of the glaciers had melted; and thus it has remained. A new world emerged from the grip of the big freeze, great rivers now flow where ice once ruled, and soon forests and grasslands came to dominate. The sea also rose, rapidly and to levels higher than today. This is thanks to a phenomenon where the land, having been compressed by the sheer weight of the ice, rebounds, but at a slower rate than the sea. So, relative to one another the sea reaches a certain height, and then the land slowly rises out of it. And all around our coast are archaic cliffs and raised beaches: testament to an older shoreline when sea levels were over 100ft higher. Scotland continues to rise.

For 10,000 years humankind has basked in the warmth of the current inter-glacial and flourished like never before in our history. But, eventually the Milankovitch cogwheels will click once more, and Scotland along with half the globe will be plunged again into the abyss of an Ice Age.

This article was written by David McNicoll, the owner of Vacation Scotland; a travel company specialising in tours and vacation packages to Scotland. If you are interested in exploring Scotland’s landscapes, please contact them by clicking their website – www.vacationscotland.biz

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