Conversion to top fruit orchards, including apples - but not cider apples - pears, cherries and plums, will bring in £600 per hectare per year for the first three years.
To help maintain this historically important gene pool, a special collection of these, along with every other type of Scottish soft and top fruit, is being developed at Fyvie Castle near Turriff, Aberdeenshire.
You can grow top fruit trees in pots and, although it is possible to grow bush trees quite well, why not try the new mini upright cordon trees that some nurseries are now producing?