New figures have revealed more than 560,000 acres of land is community-owned in Scotland.

The Estimate of Community Owned Land in Scotland 2017 publication reveals that as of June this year, there were 562,230 acres in community ownership – 2.9% of the total land area in the country.

In addition, there were a total of 492 land parcels/assets in community ownership owned by 403 community groups. During the first six months of 2017, six additional land parcels/assets came into community ownership, bringing an additional 94.23 acres being in community ownership.

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The area of land in community ownership is concentrated in two council areas: Na h-Eileanan Siar contains 385,340 acres of land in community ownership, and Highland contains 141,912 acres, equating to 93.7% (527,252 acres) of total land in community ownership.

The Government has set a target for one million acres of land in Scotland being owned by communities by the end of 2020.

(LM/JP)