Everything about Ounceland totally explained
An
ounceland (
Scottish Gaelic:
unga) is a traditional
Scottish land measurement. It was found in the West
Highlands, and
Hebrides. In the east, other measuring systems were used. It was equivalent to 20
pennylands or one eighth of a
markland. Like those measurements, it's based on the rent paid, rather than the actual land area. It was also known as a "tirung" (from
Scottish Gaelic: tir-unga), or a
dabhach (same as
daugh), which is a term of
Pictish origin, also used in the east of Scotland too, but for a different measurement. The “ounceland” is thought to be of
Norse origin, so it's possible that Norse (‘ounceland’) and native systems (
dabhach) were conflated in the west.
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 ‘
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 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, 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'…"
The term
unga/
uinge is also used for an
ingot.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ounceland'.
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