A group behind the buyout of the Bays of Harris Estate expect it to be in community hands next year.
It is now a year since a ballot showed 63% of local people supported the acquisition of the 27,000-acre area.
Another significant step was taken in June when the Bays of Harris Community Estate was registered as a company to progress the move.
A new valuation will be carried out by the end of the year ahead of funding being sought for the purchase, including from the Scottish Land Fund.
The land was last valued around five years ago at £1.1 million.
Membership drive
There will also be a membership drive. Estate residents can become members with voting rights, while non-resident supporters can become associate members.
Euan Galloway, chairman of the Bays of Harris Community Estate, said: “It’s progressing well, although it’s slower than you’d like these things to go.”
He said he now hopes the purchase will happen next year.
“We will be able to form our next step more clearly once we get the valuation back.”
Mr Galloway recently met with the current owner Rob Hitchcock, who he said was a “reluctant but willing seller”.
The Surrey-based Hitchcock family had previously indicated it would consider selling if a decisive majority of people voted for a buyout.
A feasibility study showed a community ownership of the estate was financially viable.
Priorities listed in a five-year business plan include affordable housing to help reverse decades of depopulation and creating business units to encourage employment.
Population decline
According to National Records of Scotland statistics, the islands lost 18% of its people since 1981 and 4% since 2011.
Harris has seen population decline for generations, falling from 5,449 in 1911 to 2,054 in 2011.
The population of the estate area fell by 3% from 2001 to 2011.
The estate was formed in 1925 when Lewis and Harris were split into lots and sold following the death of the previous proprietor, Lord Leverhulme.
The Hitchcock family purchased one of the lots which includes the Bays on the east side of Harris, Northton on the west and the island of Berneray.
A successful buyout would add to the already widespread community ownership in the Outer Hebrides.
More than 50% of the land in the islands is currently in community hands, with over 70% of people living on community-owned land.
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