Information AboutPennyland |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PENNYLAND | |
| scottish weights and measures | |
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Skene in ''Celtic Scotland'' says: : "in the eastern district there is a uniform system of land denomination consisting of ' Dabhachs ', ' Ploughgate s' and ' Oxgangs ', each 'dabhach' consisting of four 'ploughgates' and each 'ploughgate' containing eight 'oxgangs'. :"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 'dabhachs' and ' Pennyland s'. The portion of land termed a 'dabhach' is here also called a 'tirung' or 'ounceland', and each 'dabhach' contains 20 pennylands." The Rev. Dr Campbell of Broadford on Skye says: :"the system of land measure which prevailed in the Western Isles , and then took root in Argyll was neither Pictish nor Irish , but Norse. The unit was the ‘ Ounce -’land, i.e. the extent of land which paid the rent of an ounce of Silver . The word was borrowed by Gaelic and appears as ‘unnsa’. The land term was ‘unga’, e.g. Unganab in North Uist and in Tiree . It appears in the old charters as ‘teroung’, ‘teiroung’, &c. This extent was divided into twenty parts—sometimes into only 18 – which parts being called ‘peighinn’; hence many placenames, e.g. Pennymore, Peighinnchornach. In some places the pennyland was subdivided. On Loch Fyne side we meet with Lephinmore, Lephincorrach, (‘the big half-pennyland’, the ‘rough half pennyland’); also ‘an Fheòirling’ (the ‘farthingland’). A conventional use of the term ‘peighinn’ is met with in Skye —the Crofting town of Elgol is separated by a march-dyke from the Deer Forest ; each crofter is responsible for the upkeep of a specified length of the dyke, and it is called the ‘peighinn’ of his croft; similarly the part of the shore allotted to each croft for seaware is called the ‘peighinn’ of that croft." It should not be confused with ''pen'' which is a Brythonic language element in placenames such as Penicuik , in Midlothian . REFERENCES (Dabhach, Peighinn) FURTHER READING
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