John Toal comes from a crofting background in Lochaber and in 1985 he took on the role of grazings clerk and secretary of his local sheep stock club. In the same year the Scottish Crofters Union was formed, and John was directly involved in the formation of SCU branches and the area structure in Lochaber. John was then branch secretary of the Lochaber branch, and became President of the Lochaber Area, representing it at SCU Council level.

In 1992 John began crofting-related employment that continued for 30 years with the Scottish Crofters Union, the Lochaber Local Enterprise Company, and the Crofters later the Crofting Commission.

This involved work in advocacy, research and policy development, crofting development, project management, community engagement, crofting regulation and legislation, crofting support structures and land management.

In this episode, Donna and Eilidh chat with Dr Lucy Beattie.

Lucy is from Leckmelm, close to the village of Ullapool. She has over 28 years of hands-on experience managing her own farming business and has also worked in education, teaching rural skills at Ullapool High and managing education projects for the Scottish Crofting Federation all over the Highlands and Islands. Lucy took a break from work to complete a PhD focused on public engagement with science. She is currently employed by the James Hutton Institute as a researcher in sustainable farming systems and she was recently appointed as a Commissioner for the Scottish Land Commission.

Music credit: Peatbog Faeries

In this episode we talk all things woodland crofting with Jamie McIntyre.

Jamie is a freelance forester and community development worker based in Ardnamurchan, though most of his time is spent supporting the Woodland Crofts Partnership (of which SCF is one of 4 partners). He's had a long interest in smaller-scale, rural development forestry and in particular ‘family forestry’ models such as woodland crofts & woodlots. He was, for a time, woodland crofts officer for HIE/FCS when the model gained ‘official’ support following the 2007 Crofting Reform Act, but has been self-employed for the last 13 years. His wife was raised on the family croft and they have 4 children, though only 1 is still in school. In his spare time Jamie is involved in various community projects including a hydro scheme, a community-owned school building and a community woodland.

Music credit: Peatbog Faeries