Community / Landowner encourages residents to participate in Muckle Roe community buy-out
MUCKLE Roe landowner Max Ward has spoken about his family’s desire to pass on the island as efforts to assess a community buy-out by its 130 residents continue.
The 76-year-old investment banker said he had been aware for a long time that, “as an absentee landlord and infrequent visitor to Shetland”, he had been unable to “contribute much to the evolution of Muckle Roe”.
When he floated the idea of a community buyout during a meeting in the Muckle Roe hall in June 2024, the initial response, at least from the local grazing committee was somewhat hesitant.
However since then grant funding from the Scottish Land Fund, the Delting Community Council and Shetland Community Benefit Fund has been secured to carry out thorough research of the views held in the community and of the options on the table, including public funding opportunities.
If a sale goes ahead, it would be the first ever community buy-out in Shetland.
Known for its wild and largely unspoilt beauty, Muckle Roe is connected via bridge to the Shetland mainland, and is a popular tourist destination.
Ward owns around 60 per cent of the island and is the landlord to around 25 crofting families. The remaining 40 per cent has been sold to local crofters over the years exercising their right to buy.
A former partner in investment firm Baillie Gifford, Ward inherited parts of the original Busta Estate in 1974 from his grandfather Basil Neven-Spence, Shetland and Orkney’s only Unionist MP who lost his seat to Jo Grimond in 1950.
Part of a prominent land-owning family in the isles, Neven Spence once lived in Uyea, off Unst, which he sold in 1950 and then bought part of the Busta Estate including Busta House and Muckle Roe.
Following Neven Spence’s death in September 1974, aged 86, his grandson sold further parts of the estate, including Busta House, which then became a hotel.
Ward says that as a child he spent every summer holiday on the estate and has fond memories of the time.
Speaking to Shetland News about his motivations behind offering the island to the community, Ward said: “It has worried me for some time that, as an absentee landlord and infrequent visitor to Shetland, I have been unable to contribute much to the evolution of Muckle Roe.
“My children, all of whom love the island, would be constrained in the same way that I am. They all support the idea of a community buy-out.”
He said that, following the initial meeting in summer 2024, both he and his wife Sarah formed the view that the community was well placed to look after the island.
“In particular, they shared our view that wind farms would be a desecration of an area of outstanding natural beauty,” he added.
“We will ask our advisers to investigate what clauses we can put in the contract to prevent or discourage the building of wind farms on the island, but at the end of the day we shall probably have to trust the community.”
However, it is the breadth of participation that is one of the key elements of any successful community buy-out.
To that end the local working group has appointed consultants from Community Enterprise to provide leadership and guidance for the Muckle Roe community to make informed decisions.
A spokesperson for the working group described the chance to buy the island as an “incredibly exciting opportunity for the community – one we would like to thank the current landowners for”.
Ward added: “From our point of view, the more people supporting the buy-out, the lower the risk of irresponsible behaviour in the future.”
So how does it feel to let the island go and give the community who has lived there for generation to opportunity to finally own the land?
“Difficult”, he admits freely, despite previously describing himself as an absentee landlord.
“But I and my family will still have just as much freedom to visit Muckle Roe as we have ever had, and that is what really matters,” he added.
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