Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This is an action of declarator brought by the Crown for the purpose of having it found that the soil of the shores of the sea round Scotland, below high-water mark on ordinary spring tides, so far as it has not been granted to any subject of the realm by charter or otherwise, belongs to her Majesty jure coronæ, and forms part of the hereditary revenues of the Crown in Scotland; also that the shore of the sea below high-water mark ex adverso of the lands of Ardgour, the property of the defender, belongs exclusively to the Crown; and finally, that the defender should be ordained to pay £20 as the price of the site of a pier erected on foreshore ex adverso of the defender's lands of Ardgour at Corran Ferry.

The defender pleads that the solum of the shore, subject to the right of the Crown as trustee for public uses, is carried by the defender's titles as part and pertinent of his estate; and further, that he and his predecessors have possessed the solum of the shore for more than the prescriptive period.

We understand that this is to be regarded as a “specimen” case for the purpose of settling the whole question of the Crown's right to the foreshore.