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Slightly more than half our land is under trees with most of the balance being farmland which itself is a mixture of in-hand and tenanted farmland. You can read more about these land-using enterprises on the relevant pages. 

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 The land is not high quality and tends to be shallow and stony. This is particularly true on the southern and western slopes which bore the brunt of scouring by the ice sheet during the last Ice Age. The soil on the northern and eastern slopes tends to be slightly deeper.

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Some of the farmland is farmed in-hand while the rest is split between 6 small tenant farms.

Generally speaking a tenanted farm is a partnership between Landlord and Tenant. The landlord provides the land, buildings, farmhouse and some of the materials for fencing and draining. The tenant provides the stock, working capital, some buildings and, of course, the labour.

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Over the last 40 years agriculture has been heavily dependent upon support from the Common Agricultural Policy. This situation is going to change in the light of the UK’s departure from the EU and there is no doubt we are all going to face interesting times.