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  • Posted June 14th, 2013
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    Low-impact living opportunities in Argyll & Bute

    Low-impact living opportunities in Argyll & Bute

    We’ve had a bit of a heads-up from a Lowimpact.org partner (who wants to remain anonymous) and family who have been looking for land to start a smallholding for years, and are finally buying a bit of Scotland on the Cowal peninsula in Argyllshire. He wants to pass on some interesting information to other people looking to do a similar thing.

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    A friend of ours stumbled across some interesting developments in Argyll & Bute whilst looking for land for sale. The county contains hundreds of new ‘rural opportunity areas (although they’re not necessarily all for sale), and with the potential for five dwellings per opportunity area, it could be a springboard for some extremely low-impact developments and even a network of small communities.

    The interesting thing is that the planning department has done a survey of the whole county and highlighted sites where small-scale development in the countryside is permitted. They are keen to repopulate the countryside and the planner I have met is very encouraging, confirming that there could be a positive response for up to 5 dwellings per area.

    The local authority are very much into local materials and sustainability and have already passed a timber reciprocal beamed roundhouse (David Blairs’ environmental education centre, Dunbeag), so are familiar with low-impact building techniques.

    Here are links to 2 documents to have a look at.

    The first outlines what the ‘rural opportunity’ areas are, and the second shows which bits of land are available. This is only a small part of the whole area – there are around 30 other documents like this one, covering the whole county.

    I think there is great potential for small permaculture communities. We are getting 100 acres (25 pasture, 75 spruce) for £145,000 which makes development affordable. Plus there’s a 120-acre piece of land for sale right next door. Argyllshire is a hotbed of alternative stuff at the moment – community forests, new hydro schemes, car sharing, monthly craft markets etc.

    So come on – we’d like some low-impact, like-minded neighbours!


    The views expressed in our blog are those of the author and not necessarily lowimpact.org's


    5 Comments

    • 1Nick Jacobs February 23rd, 2015

      But where are your two links?

      I’m just trying to get a clearer idea of the scope for the rural opportunity areas.

      Regards

      Nick


    • 2Dave Darby February 23rd, 2015

      Well spotted. They got lost in the transfer to the new website. I’ve put them back now.


    • 3Entropy March 27th, 2015

      Hi folks, is there a contact for these people that settled in Argyll?…..I’d be interested to know where the other piece of land is for sale. Many thanks in advance.


    • 4Dave Darby March 28th, 2015

      I’m afraid not – our source wanted to remain anonymous. This was quite a while ago too, so it might be sold now.


    • 5Entropy March 28th, 2015

      Hi Dave, true enough, thanks for the reply.


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