If you’ve watched even a single episode of Shetland, you’ve probably heard the word croft — and maybe pictured a little stone cottage perched against a backdrop of sea and sky. You wouldn’t be far off.
A croft is a small agricultural holding—usually a modest house on a patch of land—found mainly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The person who lives and works there is a crofter. Crofts are often family-run, passed down through generations, and they carry a deep sense of rootedness and community.
Word Origin
There is a little bit of debate about the exact origin of the word. It either comes from Old English croft, meaning a small enclosed field or farm, or it’s derived from the Dutch kroft or krocht. Either way, it means enclosed field and the term has survived for centuries in Scots and northern English dialects. Today, it’s largely pronounced with a soft ‘O’ so that it rhymes with soft or loft.
Historical Significance
Long before the 1700s, life in the Scottish Highlands and Islands was built around community and shared land. Families lived in small townships, working the soil together and grazing their animals freely under the general idea that everyone had a right to the land of their ancestors.
This changed dramatically after the Battle of Culloden (sometimes referred to as the Jacobite Rebellion) of 1745. Many clan chiefs became landlords, and their tenants were now expected to pay rent. That necessarily meant that landlords saw more profit in raising sheep or creating hunting estates than supporting small communities.
This shift led to one of Scotland’s darkest chapters: the Highland Clearances. Between the mid-1700s and mid-1800s, thousands of families were evicted, with some forced to move to the coasts, where land was poor and fishing or kelp farming became their only means of survival. Some were deported overseas, including to the Americas. Entire villages were emptied.
Many of those who remained became crofters, tenants of small plots of land with shared grazing rights. But life was still harsh, as poverty, hunger, and unfair rents plagued the Highlands. By the 1880s, frustration boiled over into protest. Crofters refused to pay rent, pulled down sheep fences, and demanded fair treatment. The Crofters’ War, as it was called, attracted national attention and eventually forced Parliament to act.
In 1883, the Napier Commission (officially the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands) was formed to investigate. The report was made public—you can find out more here (I highly recommend the click-through, it’s fascinating.)
The result was the Crofters’ Holdings Act of 1886, a landmark law that finally gave crofters security of tenure, fair rent, and legal protections. It was sometimes called the Magna Carta of the Gaels or the Magna Carta of the Highlands and Islands.
Today
Today, crofting remains a symbol of independence and heritage across the Highlands and Islands. It’s a reminder of how people fought not just for land, but for the right to belong to it.
In Shetland, crofts are more than scenery. They’re symbols of connection — to land, to family, and to a slower rhythm of life that stands in quiet contrast to the darkness of the mysteries unfolding nearby.
So next time Jimmy Perez drives up to a windswept house on the edge of nowhere, you’ll know: that’s not just a cottage. It’s a croft — a word that carries history, livelihood, and a distinctly Scottish soul.