It was formed on 22 May 2000 by Jim Crawford, a chiropodist and sport shooter[1] who was the Northern Director of the Countryside Alliance.
It was by and large a conservative-minded organisation, and unsuccessfully opposed measures such as the Scottish Land Reform Act which had been designed to give greater rights to tenant farmers and crofters.
[2] Crawford contested Ross, Skye and Inverness West, then held by the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, for the Countryside Party in the 2001 UK general election.
The party's six candidates in the region included Chris Thomas-Everard, whose family became famous during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis for refusing to allow his cows to be culled, Diana Scott, joint master of the Devon and Somerset hunt and a prominent pro-hunting campaigner and the explorer Ranulph Fiennes.
[6] Crawford, who was later elected as a member of The Highland Council for Inverness South, suggested in 2012 that the party could be reformed to oppose wind farm development.