Scottish owner-farmers will have seen their land almost double in value in the past three years.

In comparison, UK farmland values were up by 28% in 2007 equivalent to £3450 per acre, although Savills points out that without the higher percentage of rough upland in the Scottish figure, farmland values north of the border would have been markedly greater.

To illustrate this, the supply of farmland publicly for sale in Scotland totalled 40,000 acres, only marginally up on 2006, but still representing nearly 25% of the total acreage for sale in the UK.

Ian Bailey, head of Savills rural research, comments: "Historically farmland has been a safe, low-risk investment giving an annualised total return of over 10% during the past 30 years.