Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and peopleSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and people
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
As in Ireland and Wales, so also in Scotland, the ancient measures of
land were closely connected with the tribal system, but here too we find
them more greatly affected by external influences than in the two former
countries. When we examine the most ancient land-measures of that part
of Scotland lying north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, we do not find
the same local varieties which can be traced in the different provinces
of Ireland and Wales, but instead, a great and leading difference
between those of the eastern and the western districts. In the eastern
districts there is a uniform system of land denominations consisting of
Davachs, Ploughgates, and Oxgangs, the davach consisting of four
ploughgates, and each ploughgate of eight oxgangs; but as soon as we
cross the great chain of mountains separating the eastern from the
western waters, we find a different system equally uniform. The
ploughgates and oxgangs disappear, and in their place we find davachs
and penny lands. The portion of land termed a _davach_ is here also
called a _Tirung_ or ounce land (_unciata terra_), and each davach or
_Tirung_ contains twenty penny lands.
The davach[266] being the only denomination common to both parts of the
country, we may infer that it belongs to the old Celtic system of
land-measures, and that the others are foreign importations. Now we find
in the ancient province of Lothian, which originally formed part of the
Anglic kingdom of Northumbria and possessed an Anglic population, the
land-measures consisted of Carucates or ploughgates, and Bovates or
oxgangs. The oxgang contained thirteen acres, two oxgangs made a
husband-land, and eight oxgangs a ploughgate, which thus consisted of
104 acres of arable land. On the other hand, in the islands of Orkney
and in the district of Caithness, which were formerly a Norwegian
earldom under the king of Norway, we find the land was valued according
to a standard of value derived from the weight of silver, the unit being
the ounce or _Eyrir_, eight ounces forming the _Mörk_ or pound, and
twenty pennings one ounce,[267] and thus the land-measures consisted of
_Oers_ or ounce lands, the ounce lands containing either eighteen or
twenty penny lands. They seem to have been so called, because under the
Norwegian rule each homestead paid one penny as _scat_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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