The Scottish landed estate: Break-up or survival?

There are two historical narratives of landed estates in modern British and Irish history. This essay proposes to examine these narratives – one of decline, the other of preservation – to assess the relationship between them and to add an additional dimension to the debate: the role of the state. This is more diverse than the familiar story of intervention in the aftermath of the Great War to break up landed estates and redistribute land. It involves the ownership of land and the subtle relationship between those who had access to state power and the form of the landed estate. At times the latter was an important venue in which high politics was played out but the link goes beyond that to the landed estate as a means of access to political power. Prior to addressing these matters the opening section of the essay will deal with the narratives around the history of the landed estate in Britain and Ireland.