SCOTLAND has seen a 500% increase in community land buyouts since 1990 with 2.9% of land in community ownership, according to the first Scottish atlas produced in more than a century.

However, An Atlas of Opportunity also records that two men between them own around 2.2% of our country – Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, owner of clothing giant ASOS, and the Duke of Buccleuch.

The Dane is the largest private landowner in Scotland with 222,000 acres, including 11 Highland estates, while Buccleuch owns 217,000 acres.

An Atlas of Opportunity is full of facts about the country – the historic and natural Scotland, land governance and ownership, infrastructure, renewables, and food, drink and culture.

It also seeks to portray Scotland in an international context, taking the reader through the country’s global past, present and peeking into the future.

The foreword reads: “This atlas is the latest addition to the current ‘boutique’ collection of Scotland-centric cartographic works, though our atlas differs in one key way: while others have documented a present situation, An Atlas of Opportunity explores the possibilities and potentialities available to our nation.”

An Atlas of Opportunity has been produced by the team at the research and design collective Lateral North and the Common Weal think tank, the second time they have worked together.

Graham Hogg and Tom Smith, who founded Lateral North, told The Sunday National: “In 2014 we produced An Atlas of Productivity which explored Scotland and its potential relationships with the Nordic and Arctic nations.

“An Atlas of Opportunity is a follow up on this publication which examines Scotland’s national resources in more detail through mapping, infographics and imagery showcasing what our nation has to offer.

“The atlas covers 30 different themes which sets Scotland in a global context.

“We believe this is of increasing relevance given the uncertainty which surrounds the UK’s external relations.”

Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu produced a striking vision of Scotland in 1654 with the “uniquely significant landmark publication” of our first dedicated atlas.

That took 70 years to produce, and since then only seven have been created with Scotland as their sole subject: John Adair’s Sea Coast and Islands in 1703; Herman Moll’s Thirty six new and correct maps of North Britain in 1745; William Roy, (best known for his Military Survey of Scotland) produced the Romans in North Britain in 1773; the 1776 Survey and maps of the roads of North Britain or Scotland, by George Taylor and Andrew Skinner; John Thomson’s Atlas of Scotland, in 1832; the Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland, 1897-1909, by John Murray and Laurence Pullar; and John Bartholomew’s 1912 Survey Atlas of Scotland.

What none of them had were the array of facts and figures or the startling images, including drone shots and some taken from a higher viewpoint – a NASA space observatory.

Scotland has 31,460 lochs, for instance, 282 Munros, seven cities and almost 500 towns, all packed into a relatively small geographical area.

And did you know that we export £139 worth of whisky every second? Or that Scotland’s maritime area is six times the size of its land mass? You do now.

On land ownership, the atlas says Glendale Estate, on Skye, was the first recognised community buyout in 1908, which came about after it was bought by the Government and sold to the crofters.

However, it was 85 years later that Assynt Crofters’ Trust eventually managed to purchase land for community ownership, after Lord Leverhulme gifted it to the Stornoway Trust in 1923.

Residents of the Isle of Eigg have celebrated 21 years of community ownership after their purchase from absentee landlords in 1997, during which time the community has grown from 64 to more than 100.

The islanders have become known for their innovative use of renewable technologies and inventive ways to make a living.

Scotland’s biggest community land buyout to date was in 2006 when a sporting syndicate sold the 93,000-acre estate covering most of South Uist, Eriskay and Benbecula to Storas Uibhist.

An Atlas of Opportunity reflects on the change in land ownership and wonders if – with the Scottish Government aiming for one million acres to become community owned by 2020 – the “modest” transfer thus far could herald the beginning of a more seismic shift in land ownership.

Scotland is a leader in renewable energy on and offshore, and the atlas makes the most of that standing.

WE all remember US President Donald Trump’s battle to stop a windfarm development in Aberdeen Bay, which is visible from his golf resort at Menie Estate.

But, earlier this year Vattenfall managed to deploy a giant 8.8MW turbine – the world’s most powerful – at the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, much to Trump’s chagrin.

It was the first of 11 turbines planned on the site and is so powerful that developers say a single rotation of its blades could power an average home for a day.

The atlas portrays Scotland as a leader in the development of tidal energy, with experts suggesting the Pentland Firth could generate up to half of the country’s energy needs.

With this potential and the Scottish Government’s ambition to generate 100% of electricity consumption through renewables by 2020, it wonders if Scotland could become a global player in a clean energy market.

A quarter of Europe’s offshore wind resources are in Scottish waters and between 1990 and 2015 there was a 41% reduction in Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions.

And, it informs us, the low carbon and renewable energy economy in Scotland supports 58,000 jobs – all impressive stuff.

As is the inclusion of a community-run hydroelectric scheme in Applecross, Wester Ross, which was launched with a shares release three years ago.

Known as Apple Juice, it set a target of £780,000, quickly surpassed that figure and had to turn away potential investors.

The 90kW scheme can export up to 50kW to the National Grid, but the plan is for much of the electricity to be used locally, including a district scheme to provide heating and hot water to 16 households. Our culture dates back to the 12th century and is far more than the bagpipes, shortbread and tartan that outsiders used to imagine.

So, little surprise that the cultural section of the atlas takes in all its aspects, from our cultural heritage, to sport, creativity education and Gaelic.

There are mentions for the Biggar Little Festival, when the community “takes to the town for two weeks of art and local activities”; Stranraer, which hosts its annual Oyster Festival; and Stornoway which returns to its musical roots for the Hebridean Celtic Festival.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine said: “From the first time I saw the first atlas Lateral North produced it really did change how I saw Scotland and its resources.

“We’re always encouraged to see a nation in terms of its business leaders and its profit margins.

“These maps remind us that a nation is built on its natural resources, all the people who rely on those resources and their ingenuity and creativity with what they do with those resources.

“In those terms, Scotland is an incredibly rich country.”