Information About

Ounceland




Skene in ''Celtic Scotland'' says:
:"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 ‘ Ploughgate s’ and ‘ Oxgang s’ 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 said:
:"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 '…"

The term ''unga''/''uinge'' is also used for an Ingot .


SEE ALSO



REFERENCES

  • ((Dabhach, Peighinn, Unga) with corrections and additions).