Highland Titles on their website on the "we are green" page, claim to have recently acquired a 500 acre plot of land using profits, and have set up the Highland Titles Nature Reserve. There is no location given, no map provided showing the location, no disclosure of how much it cost. I have asked organisations like Scottish National Heritage and Visit Scotland if they have ever heard of it, nobody I have contacted has.
The only clue as to the location is that it is near they place they called Glencoe Wood near Duror, and within the Scottish National Heritage Glen Etive and Glen Fyne Special Protection Area. The Glen Etive and Glen Fyne Special Protection Area is vast, covering huge areas of land between Glen Kinglas in the south to Appin in the north. In short, I can't find where it actually is!
An email enquiring as to the whereabouts of the nature reserve got this response.
"The Nature Reserve is sign posted once you are in Glencoe Wood, it is basically across the stream on the opposite side to our plots within the Conservation area."
I could be wrong as I have not enquired with the Scottish Land Registry to find the owner, but I don't think they own or lease the land indicated by the above directions.
What exactly is in the Highland Titles Nature Reserve? I don't know and they are not saying, little information is given on their website.
Here is what I suspect, I can't prove it but I can speculate. I think they did not buy any land, and have said so to try to account for the money they are supposed to be spending on conservation projects. I think that as of this date, the Highland Titles Nature Reserve does not exist on any new land they have purchased.
As always, if I'm wrong and you can point me to where it is, or prove they did actually buy the land, I'll be very happy to report it here.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Scotland On Sunday Highland Titles Comment
There was an article in the newspaper Scotland On Sunday (The Scotsman) a couple of weeks back titled "£30 Title to Lord it over Glencoe". One of the comments has caught my attention, I thought it quite amusing, to the point, and worth repeating here.
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 11:06 AMI might have agreed that it is just a bit of fun had Highland Titles not misdescribed what is on offer. Here's how I see it. If I saw a fully restored vintage Rolls Royce for sale and went to view it only to find it was actually a rusty old Ford Escort that had Rolls Royce badges stuck on it and the restoration work was a cardboard and body filler job and a bad re-spray, I'd fail to see the fun side of it. An explanation by the seller that it was just a bit of fun, would not really make me feel any better about wasting my time going to see it.
Quite well put I thought!That's what Highland Titles have done, picked a vintage Rolls Royce location, Glencoe, and stuck Glencoe badges on their rusty old Ford Escort location by calling it Glencoe Wood. When I buy a car I want to view it personally before parting with cash, when folks in Australia, USA, or wherever buy a plot of land from Highland Titles they don't have an opportunity to view before buying, they take it on trust that the item is as described. Now people are finding out that what is on offer is not as described they are quite rightly getting upset about it, their trust had been betrayed. Highland Titles have misdescribed the product, have been caught out in the lie that the land they sell was actually in Glencoe, and people are complaning about the deception, simple, and in my opinion quite understandable.
Friday, 2 March 2012
Finding Your Highland Titles Glencoe Estates Plot
Highland Titles claim you can find your plot of land just by using an Ordnance Survey map. Like a lot of the information given by Higland Titles, this does not I think bear close scrutiny. Quite simply, Ordnance Survey maps, good as they are, are not accurate enough to be able to accurately locate a square foot of ground, this can be demonstrated using accuracy figures from Ordnance Survey themselves.
The large scale 1:1250 scale map can only produce an accuracy of plus or minus 1 metre at 99% confidence level. The best 1:2500 scale map can only produce accuracy of plus or minus 2.3 metres at 99% confidence level. I would say it is not therefore possible to locate a 1 square foot plot using an Ordnance Survey map.
The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland seems to agree that the land cannot be found using an Ordnance Survey Map. “The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland cannot accept applications for registration in the land register for land not sufficiently described to allow it to be identified on the Ordnance Survey Map.”
How about GPS, surely that would locate a plot? Again when we examine the accuracy of commercially available GPS systems we find that the accuracy is not sufficient. Garmin, a very respected manufacturer of GPS receivers claim an accuracy of 15 metres on average. "Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average."(http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/). Not accurate enough to positively locate a square foot of ground then.
I have no idea how you could possibly locate your square foot of ground, if anybody does please get in touch and let me know, I'd be very interested to find out, and will correct this post if it is a valid method.
| Scale and method of original survey | ||||
| 1:1250 scale | Maps surveyed at 1:1250 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail. | |||
| 1:2500 scale resurvey/ reformed | Maps surveyed at 1:2500 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail. | |||
| 1:2500 scale overhaul | Maps originally recompiled from pre-1946 County Series mapping. | |||
| 1:10,000 scale * | Maps surveyed at 1:10000 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail. | |||
* Some generalisation of detail does occur for cartographic reasons on 1:10,000 mapping therefore some points of detail may appear to be less accurate than these standards. |
The large scale 1:1250 scale map can only produce an accuracy of plus or minus 1 metre at 99% confidence level. The best 1:2500 scale map can only produce accuracy of plus or minus 2.3 metres at 99% confidence level. I would say it is not therefore possible to locate a 1 square foot plot using an Ordnance Survey map.
The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland seems to agree that the land cannot be found using an Ordnance Survey Map. “The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland cannot accept applications for registration in the land register for land not sufficiently described to allow it to be identified on the Ordnance Survey Map.”
How about GPS, surely that would locate a plot? Again when we examine the accuracy of commercially available GPS systems we find that the accuracy is not sufficient. Garmin, a very respected manufacturer of GPS receivers claim an accuracy of 15 metres on average. "Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average."(http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/). Not accurate enough to positively locate a square foot of ground then.
I have no idea how you could possibly locate your square foot of ground, if anybody does please get in touch and let me know, I'd be very interested to find out, and will correct this post if it is a valid method.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)