Denis Rixson The influence of land-assessment terms on West coast place-names.
(The area of study includes the Hebrides and the west coast mainland from Cowal to Glenelg).
The Scottish unit of land-assessment was the merkland - presumably the land once reckoned as capable of producing one merk of silver rent per annum. As the power of the Scottish realm extended over the Highlands and the Kingdom of the Isles during the thirteenth century so local units such as ouncelands were converted into merklands. Essentially this was like a balancing of currencies using an exchange-rate mechanism. To some extent we can chart this process via the differing exchange rates which obtained. The Macruari possessions of the Small Isles, Uist and Barra were converted at a rate of 1 ounceland to 6 merks. Skye, Harris, Lewis and Glenelg (the northern half of the old Kingdom of the Isles) were exchanged at the rate of 1 ounceland to 4 merks. Knowledge of this process may help us establish how and when the Highland area was incorporated within the Scottish fiscal system.
Place-names incorporating merklands are uncommon in our area but can be found in Arran (Marganish, Margrioch), Kintyre (Marg-monagach) and by Loch Awe (Marginellane). We also glimpse the relationship between land-assessment and religious maintenance in the two places called Margnaheglish (merkland of the church) in Arran.
Below (or before) the merkland assessment lies another reckoning in terms of ouncelands and pennylands. These may not have had a common origin but melded together in the west where 1 ounceland was worth 20 pennylands. Tirungs (literally land-ounce) referred to large areas of land and so do not often find their way into place-names. ‘Unciatas’ often feature in the documents but only occasionally do we learn of places like Ungistaffard (Mull) or Ungnacille (Skye). By charting the number of ouncelands we can establish the relative importance of the island domains. Rum (1 ounceland) was larger but considerably less important than Eigg (5 ouncelands) and no more valuable than tiny Muck (also 1 ounceland). It is clear that what is being measured is productivity not area.
Pennylands though, are very common. There are various suggestions as to their origin but I think there is a presumption in favour of an (almost) local currency system based on the Hiberno-Norse coinage produced in Dublin from about 997. Skye had about 55 ouncelands or 1100 pennylands. Ouncelands were not always sub-divided into individual pennylands but these are still very common, especially in Trotternish (Skye). However they are not found in islands like Islay, Colonsay, Gigha, Tiree, Coll and Raasay. It is probable that royal or church land was excluded from the process of subdivision to family and tenants. There are over 100 place-names in our area which include the element peighinn or penny - all but a handful have a clearly Gaelic second element. Often this is very prosaic such as mòr (big - Trotternish, Mull, N Uist, Knoydart), caisteal (castle - Knapdale, Arran, Craignish), dùn (fort - 3 times in Trotternish alone), gobha (smith - Skye, Kintyre, Morvern, Mull), dubh (black - Arran, Glassary, Kintyre) garbh (rough - Lorn).
Pennylands could be divided into half-pennylands so leth-pheighinn is also a popular element. Sometimes a place is simply known as An Leth-pheighinn (Skye, Rum) but there are also several Lephinbegs and Lephinmores. The process of subdivision did not stop there. Below the half-penny unit was the feòirling or farthing-land, often becoming Feorline (Cowal) or Feorling (Arran, Appin). Smaller units still have Gaelic names which have not entered the toponymy of the area.
Ouncelands and pennylands take us back to Norse times. Can we relate them to earlier units such as davachs or houses?
We are fortunate in that ouncelands and davachs are specifically equated in mediaeval charters for the west coast. The problem is that davachs seem to be absent from Argyll - the area of first Scottish settlement. Place-names such as Sruthan na dabhaich (Islay) give an indication that this absence may be more apparent than real. I have not finished my research in Argyll but suspect that davachs underlie ouncelands along the whole west coast. That said the element dabhach is rarely found, exceptions being ‘Gargavak’ (rough davach) and Doch-anassie in Lochaber. Quarterlands (ceathramh) and eighthlands (ochdamh) are common in Argyll but beg the question - a quarter or an eighth of what? Bute has at least 10 quarterland names (Kerrycroy, Kerrylamont) and Tiree at least 5 (Keranokile, Kerremeanach) but in Kintyre it looks as if ceathramh may refer to quarters of pennylands. Eighthlands only occur in place-names in Kintyre (Ochtorag) and Islay (Octomore, Octofad).
Given the importance of the house in Dalriadic Argyll can we match pennylands to houses? Unfortunately there is no evidence that I know of which can establish a clear link between the 20-house units of the Senchus Fer nAlban and the 20-pennyland ounceland of the Norse - beyond the arithmetic parallel. The only toponymic element that might indicate the Dalriadic household unit is the element tìr (land). Tìr names are found throughout the area that was once Dalriada - often combined with a personal name (Tirfergus - Kintyre, Knok-tirmartin - Mull). They are particularly common in the Ross of Mull which was an early church estate and possibly not so much affected by Norse colonisation.
Finally there was a close link between the Norse land-assessment system and the maintenance of religion. Pennyland and half-pennyland units are often linked with religious establishments. There are examples of Pennykill in N Uist, Skye and Craignish, Pennycross in Mull and Arran, half-penny ‘kills’ in Knapdale and Cowal. Equally several ‘Kil-names’ had assessments of 1d. I suspect that the Highland parochial system, from the time of first establishment, recognised the need to maintain the church - and the land-assessment system was invoked accordingly.
Denis Rixson
Rod Taylor Place-Names of Loch Rannoch.
Jim Kirby Garbh Chrìochan a Deas “Lost” Place-Names Survey.
Alan Macniven Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics and the Real Significance of Islay’s Norse Place-Names.