• About us

  • The Crown Estate is a diverse property business valued at more than £7 billion. We have been trusted to manage a wide range of properties across the UK including commercial and retail properties. In the country, it includes agricultural land, parkland and forestry. It includes shopping centres, business parks, farms and housing. And we have over half the foreshore and almost all of the seabed around the UK.

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    Welcome to The Crown Estate

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• Careers

  • We hope you're here because you believe your talents and experience match the exciting opportunities which exist in our unique organisation.

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• Urban

  • The Crown Estate's urban portfolio comprises a wide and varied mix of properties ranging from modern purpose-built offices, retail and shopping centres to Grade I listed buildings.

    • What we do
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    Estates mapAgents A-ZCase studies

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    Retail

    Prime retail is one of our core sectors.

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• Marine

  • We manage virtually the entire seabed out to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit, as well as around half of the foreshore.

    • What we do
    • Aggregates
    • Aquaculture
    • Cables and pipelines
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    Aggregates

    Our estate includes the rights to explore and utilise the mineral interests of the UK continental shelf.

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• Energy

  • The Crown Estate is a key player in supporting the delivery of a diverse and secure energy supply for the UK.

    • Offshore wind energy
    • Onshore renewables
    • Carbon capture and storage
    • Natural gas storage
    • Wave and tidal
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    Estates mapCase studies

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    Offshore wind energy

    As managers of the seabed out to the 12 nm limit, we play a major role in the development of the offshore wind energy industry in the UK.

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• Rural

  • The rural estate comprises the agricultural, mineral and forestry estates in England, Scotland & Wales, as well as residential and commercial property.

    • What we do
    • Agriculture
    • Development
    • Forestry
    • Minerals
    • New business
    • Rural residential
    • Tourism
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    Agriculture

    Our agricultural interests include both livestock and arable farming over 106,000 hectares (263,000 acres) across the UK.

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• Windsor

  • The Windsor Estate covers approximately 6,400 hectares and includes Windsor Great Park, the Home Park of Windsor Castle, extensive forests, residential and commercial properties, golf courses, a racecourse and let farms.

    • What we do
    • Parkland
    • Ascot and surrounds
    • Forestry
    • Residential and commercial lettings
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    Estates mapAgents A-Z

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    The Royal Landscape

    Situated in the southeast corner of Windsor Great Park lies The Royal Landscape, featuring the famous Savill and Valley Gardens.

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• Marine
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• Aquaculture
  • Working with us
• Cables and pipelines
• Marine research
  • Aquaculture research
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  • Socio-economic research
  • Sustainability
• Marine stewardship fund
  • Our projects
  • Case studies in detail
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• Metal detecting
  • Metal detecting permit application
• Minerals potash
• Moorings and marinas
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• Wildfowling
• Case studies
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Aquaculture research

Aquaculture research

Aquaculture research

We invest in research projects for two main reasons: to provide information which will reduce uncertainties regarding the impact of activities we manage; or to provide background information that might assist in developing new business sectors. Our aquaculture research has included projects of both types.

In our drive to reduce uncertainty and increase understanding, we have carried out a broad range of projects addressing management, husbandry and consenting issues for finfish and shellfish aquaculture, as well as the threats to aquaculture such as those arising from harmful algal blooms and jellyfish.

In addition, we continue to support the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF) with a core subscription as well as additional contributions to specific projects.

Our experience in aquaculture has also been put to good use in gaining an understanding of the issues surrounding the farming of macro-algae (seaweed). Not only can seaweed farming be viewed as a small-scale diversification for traditional aquaculture practice, we believe it also has potential as the basis for a new large scale bio-energy or bio-chemicals business sector.

Reports

Reports

Developing the capacity to monitor jellyfish distributions (2010)
(PDF 3.8 MB)

Predicting the progression of Karenia mikimotoi along the Scottish coast (2009) 
(PDF 5.2 MB)

Marine biomass for anaerobic biogas production  (2008)
(PDF 1.4 MB)

Alternative marine sources of protein and oil (2008) 
(PDF 290 KB)

Biofouling in marine aquaculture (2008) 
(PDF 260 KB)

Comparison of Escherichia coli ribotypes (2008)
(PDF 1.1 MB)

Aquaculture projects

Aquaculture projects

Title	Ongoing/ Complete	Brief description	Main contractor	Co-funders
Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF) - Core funding	Ongoing	Contribution to overall research programme.	FRM Ltd	Many
BioMara Marine Biofuels	Ongoing	Use of macro algae as an energy source	SAMS	Many
Rivers & Fisheries Trusts Scotland (RAFTS)	Ongoing	Contribution to West coast fisheries trusts projects	RAFTS	N/A
Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers (ASSG)	Ongoing	Sponsorship of annual conference	ASSG	Many
Karenia bloom risks to aquaculture industry	Ongoing	Monitoring and aquaculture industry 'alerting' project for harmful algal blooms	SAMS / PML	SSPO
Wrasse hatchery project	Ongoing	Hatchery trials for wrasse as sea-lice remedy in salmon farming	Otterferry Seafish	HIE + EC
Jellyfish risks to aquaculture industry	Ongoing	Study of species and occurrence in connection with aquaculture facilities in west coast waters	SAMS	N/A
Sea lice dispersal	Ongoing	Study of hydrodynamic dispersal of lice in Loch Linnhe	Marine Scotland	N/A
Shellfish life-cycle analysis	Ongoing	LCA project to establish carbon issues	ERM	SARF + ASSG
Shellfish EIA project	Ongoing	Study of feasibility of loch-scale EIA	SAMS	SARF
Shellfish restoration	Ongoing	Sponsorship of international shellfish restoration conf	Stirling University	Many
Carbon budgets in aquaculture	Ongoing	Analysis of energy and carbon issues	Essex University	N/A

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