This study looks at how Scotland's crofting localities have evolved in recent years. Once thought to be anachronistic, today crofting is heralded as an ecologically sensitive way of enabling families to combine farming with a wide range of other activities. The effect on the Scottish landscape is quite visible, and crofting areas long thought of as being condemned to depopulation and decline are demonstrating remarkable new vitality. As the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union, the author is ideally placed to tell the story of this transformation. James Hunter was Features Writer of the Year in the 1981 Scottish Press Awards and is the author of The Making of the Crofting Community.