Everything about Pennyland totally explained
A
pennyland (
Scottish Gaelic: “peighinn”) is an old
Scottish land measurement. It was found in the West Highlands, and also
Galloway, and believed to be of
Norse origin. It is frequently found in minor placenames.
Skene in
Celtic Scotland says:
» "in the eastern district there's a uniform system of land denomination consisting of '
dabhachs', '
ploughgates' 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 'pennylands'. 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, for example 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’, for example 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, for example Pennymore, Peighinnchornach. In some places the pennyland was subdivided. On
Loch Fyneside 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's 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 shouldn't be confused with
pen which is a
Brythonic language element in placenames such as
Penicuik, in
Midlothian.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pennyland'.
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