BODDAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
CONTRACTUAL TERMS OF ENTRY — PRIVATE LAND
Please read these terms before leaving the road.
Boddam Wildlife Sanctuary (“the Sanctuary”) comprises private land at Boddam, Shetland, owned by Ronald and Sandra Irvine.
Entry onto Sanctuary land is permitted by the owners only upon the following terms.
You are under no obligation to accept these terms. If you do not accept them, remain on the road and do not enter Sanctuary land.
1. Offer of permission to enter
Ronald and Sandra Irvine, as owners of the Sanctuary land (“the Owners”), offer a conditional licence to enter and remain upon Sanctuary land upon the terms stated on this page.
This offer applies to entry on foot, by vehicle, on horseback or by any other means.
2. Notice of the terms
Signs at the boundary identify the land as private and state:
ENTRY SUBJECT TO CONTRACTUAL TERMS
CHARGES APPLY
The signs provide a QR code and website address by which these terms may be read before leaving the road and state:
DO NOT ENTER UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS
These terms are therefore made available before entry.
3. Acceptance
A person who, after having the opportunity to read these terms, deliberately leaves the road and enters Sanctuary land accepts the Owners' offer by conduct.
The contract is formed upon entry onto Sanctuary land.
If you do not accept these terms, do not enter.
4. Entry charges
Entry onto Sanctuary land under the contractual permission offered by the Owners is subject to the following charges:
Person: £1,000 per person per hour or part thereof.
Motor vehicle: £5,000 per vehicle per hour or part thereof.
The vehicle charge is additional to the charge applicable to each person entering with or in the vehicle.
Each commenced hour is charged as a complete hour.
These sums are the stated price of the conditional permission offered by the Owners to enter and remain upon their land. They are not described as fines or penalties. They are reasonable in view of the issues involved.
Anyone unwilling to incur the applicable charge must not enter Sanctuary land under the permission offered by these terms.
5. When charging begins and ends
The applicable charge begins when a person, vehicle, horse or other means of conveyance leaves the road and enters Sanctuary land.
The charge continues for each hour or part thereof during which the person or vehicle remains upon Sanctuary land.
Leaving Sanctuary land ends that period of entry.
A subsequent entry constitutes a new entry and, where made under the Owners' permission, a new acceptance of these terms.
6. Roads, passing places and parking
The roads through the Sanctuary are single-track roads with passing places.
Passing places are provided for the passage of traffic. They are not parking facilities provided by the Owners.
The Owners provide no public parking facilities on Sanctuary land.
A motor vehicle which leaves the road and enters or parks upon grassland, foreshore or other Sanctuary land does so only upon these contractual terms unless some independent legal entitlement to do so is established.
Parking or leaving a vehicle upon Sanctuary land therefore incurs the applicable vehicle charge where entry is made under the permission offered by these terms.
Nothing in these terms gives permission to obstruct the road or a passing place.
7. Persons claiming an independent right of access
These terms govern entry by permission of the Owners.
A person who claims an existing legal right to enter Sanctuary land independently of the Owners' permission, whether under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 or otherwise, does not accept these contractual terms merely by asserting such an independent right.
The Owners do not, however, accept that the mere assertion of a statutory or other right establishes either its existence or its applicability to this land.
A person intending to enter in reliance upon such an asserted right, rather than upon the Owners' contractual permission, is requested before entering to identify the legal and evidential basis upon which:
the claimed right exists;
the legislation or other source of law relied upon applies to the land concerned; and
the particular activity proposed falls within that right.
Nothing in these terms constitutes an admission by the Owners that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, or any other asserted statutory or other right of access, has been demonstrated to apply to Sanctuary land.
Nothing in these terms is intended to prevent the exercise of a right which is established to apply.
8. Motor vehicles
No permission is given by the Owners for a motor vehicle to leave the road or to enter or park upon Sanctuary land except:
upon the contractual terms stated on this page; or
pursuant to separate express permission given by the Owners.
Any person claiming an independent legal entitlement to bring or leave a motor vehicle upon Sanctuary land is requested to identify the legal and evidential basis of that entitlement.
9. Evidence of entry
Activity on Sanctuary land may be recorded for the protection of the land, property and wildlife and for the administration and enforcement of these contractual terms and the Owners' rights.
Such records may include photographs and video showing:
persons entering or remaining upon Sanctuary land;
vehicles and vehicle registration marks;
dates and times;
locations; and
the circumstances of entry, presence or parking.
Such evidence may be retained and used where reasonably necessary to establish the circumstances of an entry, administer these terms, pursue payment, resolve a dispute, protect the Owners' rights or conduct legal proceedings.
10. Vehicle keeper information
Where a motor vehicle enters or is parked upon Sanctuary land and the identity of the person responsible is not known, the Owners may seek registered-keeper information from the DVLA or another lawful source where entitled to do so.
Obtaining information identifying a registered keeper does not, by itself, establish that the registered keeper was the driver or was the person who entered into the contract.
11. Payment
The applicable contractual charge becomes due upon entry.
Payment shall be made to Boddam Wildlife Sanctuary in accordance with the payment instructions provided by the Sanctuary.
A person wishing to enter under some separate arrangement with the Owners should obtain their express permission before leaving the road and entering Sanctuary land.
12. Conduct within the Sanctuary
The contractual permission to enter does not include permission to:
damage, disturb or interfere with wildlife or habitat;
interfere with livestock;
damage, remove or interfere with signs, fences, gates, buildings, equipment or other property;
obstruct a road or passing place;
deposit or remove material without permission; or
interfere unreasonably with the management, use or purposes of the Sanctuary.
The Owners may withdraw the contractual permission granted by these terms in respect of a person whose conduct falls outside its terms.
13. Limits of the contractual permission
Payment of an entry charge confers only the limited contractual permission described in these terms.
It does not confer ownership, possession, tenancy, servitude, right of way or any permanent or continuing interest in Sanctuary land.
The contractual permission applies only to the particular entry for which the charge is payable.
14. Ownership and competing claims
These terms are issued by or on behalf of Ronald and Sandra Irvine as Owners of the Sanctuary land.
No title, right of access, statutory entitlement, jurisdiction, authority or other interest asserted by another person or body is admitted merely because it is asserted.
Any person or body asserting a title, right or authority inconsistent with the Owners' rights is requested to identify the legal and evidential basis upon which that assertion is founded.
Nothing in these terms constitutes recognition or acceptance by the Owners of any competing title, public or private right of access, statutory entitlement, jurisdiction or authority which has not been demonstrated.
15. Other rights and remedies
Nothing in these terms waives or limits any other right or remedy available to the Owners in relation to their land or property.
In particular, contractual permission to enter does not give permission to cause damage, obstruction or interference, or to undertake conduct falling outside the permission granted by these terms.
The Owners expressly reserve all rights and remedies arising independently of this contract.
16. Severability
If any provision of these terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be treated as separate from the remaining provisions so far as legally possible.
The remaining provisions shall continue to have effect to the extent that they are capable of doing so.
17. Your choice
There is no obligation to accept the Owners' offer of contractual entry.
These terms are available for inspection before leaving the road.
If you accept them and enter under the Owners' permission, the applicable charge becomes payable upon entry.
If you claim an independent legal entitlement to enter without the Owners' permission, the Owners reserve their position and require the legal and evidential basis of that claimed entitlement to be identified.
Otherwise, if you do not accept these terms:
DO NOT LEAVE THE ROAD.
DO NOT ENTER BODDAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The legal situation in Shetland
You may not be familiar with the law in Shetland. Firstly, English law is not the same as Scots law. This, by itself causes confusion for visitors. Secondly, the land law in Shetland is based on the old Norse system of udal, or allodial ownership. Land owners in Shetland have absolute ownership of their land. Whereas owners in England and Scotland own their land under the Crown, in Shetland, ownership is under God. At the Boddam Wildlife Sanctuary, we enforce the privilege of our absolute ownership to protect the wildlife.
Registers of Scotland, in their document Udal Law and the Foreshore in Orkney & Shetland point out:
"Because of the implications of udal law, special considerations apply to the mapping of coastal titles in Orkney and Shetland. The legal assumption is that a udal title adjoining the coast will include the foreshore. The Crown has no prior right to the foreshore under udal law".
"Under udal law, the title to the foreshore extends to 'the lowest ebb'. This may fall at a lower point than the mean low water mark of ordinary spring tides (MLWS)."
Green's Encyclopaedia of the Laws of Scotland, Volume XV (702) states:
“All lands in Orkney and Shetland remain udal".
If you are a visitor, the law in Shetland is not what you are used to and may not be what you expect. Tread carefully.
In February 2025, freedom of information requests to a number of organisations professing to have authority in Shetland revealed that none of them could show any proof that Shetland is part of Scotland. Those organisations include: The Government Legal Department, The Scottish Government, Crown Estates, HMRC, DVLA, The Electoral Commission, Ofgem, the SIC and many others. There has been a giant scam operating in Shetland for many years. Hugh Harrop and his cronies work as part of that scam and its days are over.
The people of The Sovereign Nation of Shetland own their land outright (allodially), not under the king as in Scotland and England. For a full explanation, see Stuart Hill's book Stolen Isles.
According to The Laws of Scotland, sovereignty is the same as allodial ownership - thus making our people sovereign in their own right. The Crown does not own Shetland and therefore has no sovereignty here. You are not in Scotland.
In 2013, The Sovereign Nation of Shetland made an allodial claim to the sea and seabed out to 200 miles, or the median line between us and another State. That claim remains unrebutted by the UK and Scottish governments. Nobody has a higher claim.