EARLY and TRADITIONAL CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS in SCOTLAND1 by ALEXANDER FENTON, M.A., B.A., F.S.A.SCOT

EARLY AND TRADITIONAL CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND1 by ALEXANDER FENTON, M.A., B.A., F.S.A.SCOT. INTRODUCTION THE developmene studth f yo cultivatinf o t g implements, which 'has been usea s da key-inde developmene th o xt nation'a lan wela d w f o dtlan no establishes 2i thin di s and other countries. Many of the ideas relating to the evolution of ploughs, and to association between plough type and field-shape, promulgated by E. C. Curwen and other19205e th n si , have proved inadequate, though they were widely accepted dan still fin placda schoon ei universitd lan y text-books numbeA . misapprehensionf o r s was correcte subjece . Payns th G hi feet d firml s . it n n 194se tF dan i ei t n y yo 8b important article, The Plough in Ancient Britain.3 Here, and in subsequent writings,4 includee h certaida n amoun Scottisf o t h material, since supplemente . . BK R . y b d Stevenson's short, but valuable Notes on Early Agriculture in Scotland.5 Later Scottish plough histor bees yha n partly deal t Jirlo. . WhitakewitI R d y hwb an Thn ri e Plough in Scotland, articln a 6 e whic amongss hwa firse recogniso th t t pare eth t playey db spade-cultivation. publicatioe Th Britise 196n nth i y 1hb Associatio Advancemene th r nfo Sciencf o t e of H. C. Bowen's Ancient Fields has provided a study capable of stimulating and guiding further research t concentratesI . , however southere th n o , n hal Britainf o f , where evidencmuce th f ho earlr efo founde yb fieldshowd o t an s ,s i s tha weake th t - nesses of the subject for Britain as a whole lie in the lack of detailed regional studies of ploug neee th htakeo t dn typesi d intan ,o clearer accoun potentialitiee th t f o s cultivating implements other than the plough in affecting field shape. The only regional study so far is the one by Payne on the Welsh Plough, written in Welsh. followine Th g notes were written with this backgroun mindn di . Besides survey- archaeologicae th g in l evidence, they deal with implement sHighlande useth n di s and Islands, and even in this geographically restricted area, the resulting picture is one of considerable regional variety. In Scotland, where, as G. G. Coulton empha-

1 It will be obvious that these notes can in no way be regarded as definitive, and indeed, in so far as they do not touch upon the 'old Scotch' rectangular framed plough, they apply to less than half of the country. Many of the suggestions are put forward speculatively, as a basis for discussion, but at the same time an attempt has been made to present the evidence as concretely as possible. Even with this synopsis of half of histore th cultivatiof yo Scotlandn i t wili , seee lb n tha greaa t t deal more materia availabls i l e thas nha previously been realised mucd an , h more should com ligho et documents a t s suc testamentars ha y records, etc., are submitted to detailed scrutiny. These notes will have achieved their object if they provide an in- centive to further research. Thanks are due to many people for help with photographs, etc., as specified in the text, and also to Mr Robert Aitken for his stimulating correspondence, to Miss Audrey Henshall, and in particular to Robert Stevenson for his constructive criticism and ready willingness to discuss problems. 2 Jope, E. M., Agricultural Implements in C. Singer Hist. Technology, Oxford (1956), n, 93. 3 Arch. J., civ (1947), 82-111. 4 Tr Aradr Gymreig, Cardiff (1954); The British Plough: Some Stages in its Development, in A.H.R., v (1957), 74-84. 5 A.H.R., vm (1960), 1-4. 6 Scottish Studies, i (1957), 71-94.. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT5 SCOTLANN 26 I S D series sisehi Rhinf n sdo i d lecture 1931n si , agricultur histore basis e i th th o ct f yo country 'in even greater predominance than in most other countries', it is important

to try to establish the different types of cultivating implements, to asses1 s them in the light of variations in climate, soil, terrain, and social structure, and to see how these were in turn affected by changes in the cultivating implements themselves. Even in the sphere of administrative and institutional history the potentialities of the plough and its needs in man and animal power has had a marked effect, and it is no accident tha Anglo-Saxon i t n England r examplefo , e plougth ,s treate a huniwa f s o da t assessment for military and church dues.2 In Scotland, much legislation was aimed at keeping the plough in the ground, starting with Alexander II in 1214, and an imposo f 158t o s t a 7deate r ewenth Ac fa hs a tpenalt anyonn yo e maiming plough animal cuttind san g plough plougd san h gear - 3misdemeanour s which numerous entrieRegistee th e Priv th n i s f yo r Council sho havo wt emeano been - y nb un s common e typTh e. that gets intnation'e oth s laws, however 'ole th d s i Scotch, ' plough wit largs hit e tea draughf mo t animals e implementTh . s with which these notes are primarily concerned never acquired such status. . I ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE (i) Stone-Bronzee Ag The earliest evidence for implements of cultivation comes from Shetland, and appear e nearlb thousano o t stw y d years earlier thay othenan r evidence from Scotland. Thi tantalisings i , since condition Northere th n si charactert n Isleno e sar - isti Scotlanf co unsafs i whole a t i s generalisedo a ed t an , . However reasonabls i t i , e infeo t r that thoug materiae hth l cultur Northere th f eo n Isle developes sha d regional characteristics, it is nevertheless likely to reflect some Mainland Scottish traditions, and a stone artefact in Shetland may well represent a wooden artefact elsewhere. The evidence for cultivating implements in Shetland, and to a lesser extent Orkney, take for e numbea sth f m o stonf ro e barparticulaa f so r typemajorite Th . y cross-section i e ar n lik ea flattene d ovalvard an lengtn ,yi h fro e ft.m3 th , o t i average falling betwee n . 1d Other81in 2an more sar e rounde section di mord nan e sharply pointed (fig. i). The largest known is 3 ft. z\ in. long and came from under 3 ft. 6 in. of peaty soil at Urafirth, Northmavine, Shetland. It is pointed at each end d botan h points show trace e sid f weaon eo s t only.a r Comparativel barw yfe s

survive complete, but numerou4 s broken off tips have been found. The sample (AC 609) from Lower Gruniquoy, Northmavine, Shetland, illustrated in P.S.A.S., LXXXIX (1955-6 twenty-sif o )e 395on s i , x foune (Hon D d e 1165thereth d ) an ,fro m the Ness of Gruting, illustrated on the same page, shows the flat, oval type. What all these bars have in common is the distinctive manner in which one side of the point 1 Coulton, G. G., Scottish Abbeys and Social Life, Cambridge (1933), 134. 2 e.g. Attenborough, F. L., The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, Cambridge (1922), II jEthelstan 16; Edwar d Guthru dI an Êthelsta , 3 . RobertsonJ § . m6 A ; n4 Laws e Th , Kings e oth f of England from Edmund to Henry , CambridgI e (1925) I EdgaI , I Êthelrer i§ ,VI i I Canut , d7 1-2§ e8 I Edmun, jEthelreV , d2 d ii § i, VI Êthelred 16, VIII .Ethelred 12. 3 See Cochran-Patrick, R. W., Medieval Scotland, Glasgow (1892), 20-21, 23-25. 4 P.S.A.S., LXXXVI (1951-2), 206, PI. XL1II, 4. I am indebted to Peter Moar, F.S.A.SCOT., for additional details. 266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64

FIG. i. Bar shares of stone: i. From Shetland, oval cross-section, 16 by 3-6 in. (AC 607); 2. From Shetland, rounded cross-section, 21 by 2^ in. (AC 17); 3. From Orkney, oval cross-section, collar at back, 13-3 by 3^3 in. (AC 648) EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT7 SCOTLANN 26 I S D has been worn smooth by use. The area of wear extends about 2 J to 4 in. back from from the tip. The way in which the wear is confined implies that the bars were fitted into a wooden frame, and is one of the clues to their possible use. R. B. K. Stevenson was the first to suggest in 1956* that they might have acted as shares for a primitive typ ploughf eo ard,n a whicf , o h numerous wooden example partd san s have been found in peat bogs in Denmark and elsewhere on the Continent, and two in SW. Scotland. If this is so, the bars were probably mounted in a mortise in the end of plough-beae th same th men i manne woodes ra n share mountee sar composite th n di e variety know bow-arda s na (fig. 2) . An interesting parallel is offered by the iron sock bars patented by the plough- making firm of Sellars of Huntly in the early igoos for horse-drawn ploughs, now widely use tracton do r ploughs. Thes ribbee ear notcher do bettea r dfo e r grith n po

FIG. 2. The Donneruplund bow-ard, after Glob. The mortis beae th mn ei holds, from lef righto t t foree ,th - share, share, and combined plough-head and stilt

frame in which they lie, just as the stone bars are flaked or pecked. In use the tips wear to one side and have then to be turned so that the sharpest part of the tip is always in closest contact with the land. The stone-bars also have tips worn to one side, and at least one example (AC 607) in the National Museum, from Unst, Shet- land, has been similarly turned. The iron sock bars lie at a shallow angle of about 2o°-25°, which would agree fairly well with the angle of the share in the mortise of a beam such as that from Lochmaben (PI. XLIV, i). There is in addition to this an important parallel of Roman date, in the form of a number of iron bars from Silchester in Berkshire, and Great Chesterford in Essex. One was illustrated by R. C. Neville as early as 1856* and another reproduced in diagrammati c. Aber outlin A wrongl s . F g wa y eb Romanoa y s describea m hi -y db British coulter. In both, the bars have been worn at each end in the same way as 3 some of the stone bars from Shetland, and can in no way be regarded as coulters. They range in length from 2 to 3 ft., and are ij by i in. in section, agreeing very closely with the dimensions of modern bar shares. The character of the wear on the tips is also similar to that on both modern bar shares and prehistoric stone shares (PL XLIV, 2-3) bare botn Th s.i h hoards date fro fourte mth h century A.D. William Mannin Universitf go y College, Cardif coms ha f e independentl conclusioe th o yt n tha r sharet thesba e sear use ardsn views do Hi . s have been publishe Journale th n di 1 P.S.A.S., LXXXI Arch.* , xiXJ. n(1955-6) (1856) PId . an a,4 , ,17 395-6. . Earlye 1Th Plough Europen i Gwerinn i (1957), i, 179, fig , 126 . . PSA S 8 26 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 of Roman Studies, LIV (1964), 60. Presumably these stone and iron bar shares occupied same th e woode e bead positio th ar mortise s me th a th nn n i f foreshar eo r fo , eof example, the Donneruplund ard1 (fig. 2). Their function would have been to take the brunt of the wear, and to protect an underlying arrow-shaped share of wood, shar e morr o th s eea itself. likelt ac o y2t Tanged iron shares like those from Hunsbury Hill fort, Northampton, and from Box, Wiltshire, can then be regarded as two in 3 versione same on th f eso arrangement. Share fore pointea th f m o n si d oval shoe, like that from Blackburn Mill (fig. 4.1) e allegeth , d Viking shar n Dunrobii e n Castle Museum4 (fig. 4:9 and n. 2), various shares from Irish sources,5 and the shares of existing single-stilted ploughs from Orkney (fig. 12) provid n answee a e th o t r proble preventinf mo g weaprotectiva y b r e cover rather thareplacemena y nb n i t iro stoner no . Additional evidenc cultivatioe th r efo Northere f cropno th n si n Isles takee sth form of grain impressions on pottery, and of field systems. The impress of a grain of naked barley, Hordeum distickum, came from a chambered cairn at the Calf of Eday, and one of hulled barley, Hordeum hexastichum, from the cairn at Unstan, both in Orkney.6 To this, but perhaps somewhat later in time, can be added a find of 28 Ib. of carbonised barley hermetically sealed unde housa masa rt a pea f eh o s sitas t e reflecting a retarded neolithic tradition at Gruting, Shetland, with a broken dish 7 quern lying alongside the pile. Saddle querns, trough querns, and grain rubbers came from other house sites of cognate type. Around these houses, which are often situated 'in places where the moorland seems to have been uninhabited ever since, except for sporadic iron age squatting'8 there are stone clearance heaps of the kind still made by Shetland crofters and called by them ronies, a word of Norse etymology, and systems of fields whose occurrence has been listed by Calder.9 One group of five or six at the Scord of Brouster in Walls (fig. 5:1) extend abouo t s f acres2 t , whic s comparablhi e averagth o t e e arable acreag present-daf eo y crofts eve sucn no hfertila e islan Fetlars da , emphasising that arable th e potentia Shetlanf o l always dha s been small fielde curvilineae Th .ar s n ri thein i outline. ft r 0 longesmeasurd 26 an , o t t 0 dimensionse6 . Their boundariee sar marked by walls of denuded and overgrown drystone dyking. The clearance heaps, . highft . acros2 ft , d 0 occu2 san o t r p botu e hwhicb insidy outsidd hma e an e eth fields, implyin gdemarcate w thafielde no th ts a s superimposee dar previousln do y cultivated land. Unfortunately uncertaie th , n datinpottere th f go y from these oval house sites makes precise dating of the bar shares and field systems difficult. In the Bowene 1Se . C.H ,, Ancient Fields (London diagra a 1961) r structurae fo th , f m8 , o l feature thif so s ard. See Glob, P. V., Ard og Plov (Aarhus 1951), 58—71; van der Poel, J. M. G., De Landbouw in het verste Verleden2 in Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor het oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek, x-xi (1960-1), 158-9. Payne . G. Arch.F ,n i , J., civ fig d (1947)17d .an . an 1.8, , 9 ,93 ,

48 Shetelig, H., Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Oslo (1940), n, 161. RiordainC 6 , LeacanabuaileFoyd B. an . ,, J S. , Stone Fort injnl. Cork Hist, and Arch. Soc., XLVI (1941), 92 , and facing p. 94; Duignan, M., Irish Agriculture in Early Historic Times injf.R.S.A.L, LXXIV (1944), 137; Wood- Martin, W. G., The Lake Dwellings of Ireland, Dublin (1886), 141 and PL XXXIII, 8. 6 Jessen, K. and Helbask, H., Cereals in Great Britain and Ireland in Prehistoric and Early Historic Times in Kong. Danske Videns. Selskab (Biol. Skrift. Ill) (1949), 18. 7, Stone CalderHouseT. e . Ag S . SitesC , Shetlandn i P.S.A.S.,n i LXXXIX (1955-6), 353-4. 8 Stevenson, R. B. K., Notes on Early Agriculture in Scotland in A.H.R., vm (1960), i. 9 Calder . . ffcit.T.3 S . op ,. 36 , C , EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 269 case of Jarlshof, better dating is possible, since traces were found of a Late Bronze Age field system bounde wally db looself so y built stones survivin heigha o gt f o t 3 ft. 6 in. These were covered by 5 ft. of windblown sand, and a later field system of Iron Age date was established on top. Jarlshof, therefore, proves the existence of 1 field system Late th en i sBronz ovae eth Age l d housesan , , though maintaininga retarded neolithic cultural tradition int BronzBritaine n oi th wha e s y eAg wa ma t, be associated with fields of earlier date, probably contemporary with, or even slightly later tha criss-crose nth s ploughshare marks o. 160fc 0 B.C., foun recenn di t yearn si Bronz fielde t eGwithiaAg a s Cornwall.n i 2 ) Iron(2 Age: evidence f woodeno parts o findTw s provide evidenc . Scotlan r SW ard fo en i s d abou e first-seconth t d centur heava s i y ye A.D bea . . lonOn i J.ft in mg8 that came fro mpeat-boa t ga Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire 1870 n preservei , w no ,Dumfriee th n di s Burgh Museum (PI. XLIV, i). The rear end, 5 by 3-25 in. in section, has a mortise at the lower end, measuring 4-25 by 1-6 in. through which would have gone, on the analogy of continental finds of bow-ards of Late Bronze-Early Iron Age date, a wooden share and fore shareplough-heaa d ,an stil frod e dan tm on lik e Mieth l ton Loch Crannog (fig. 3). There is a further aperture measuring 2-3 by 0-9 in. in the fore-part of the beam, to hold the yoke attachment. Though by no means heavy, such an implement would certainly have done more than merely scratc groune hth d surface. combinee Th d plough-hea stild dan t from Milton Loch Crannog3 measure. ft s4 2-. overall5in arroe th , w shaped head being n- . lon6 in 5-2 y g. b wid 5in e (fig. 3) . raiseo Thertw de ridgeegroovar a uppee d th n san re o surfac gri o shart e pth n ei position, a feature also known on continental ards. There is a backwards curving hand-grip cut from the solid, in appearance like the wood or horn handles of some of the peat-spades still found in Galloway. excavatoe . PiggottTh M crannoge . th suggestes C f s r o ha ,analog e Mr th , n do y of continental finds4 that this may have been a ritual deposit, but though it underlay the floor of the crannog, its position had no special significance. It had been broken when deposited, and may well have been thrown in as filling. Since finds in the crannog can be dated to the second century A.D., the plough-head and stilt must antedate them and indeed it must antedate the crannog itself. There is no means of dating the Lochmaben beam, but it is unlikely to be far separated in time from the Milton Loch Crannog ard. (3) Iron age: evidence of iron parts The arrival, some time in the first century B.C., of what seems to have been a refugee movement from the south of Britain, and of the Romans shortly after, added elemen w histore ne th a cultivatioo f t y o o Scotlane fn i iro us e n th ploughshares d- . movemene Th t came from areas where grain-growin carries fieldn gi wa n dso tilled Hamilton . C.R , Jarlshof. ,J (Edinburgh 1956). 84 , 81 See Megaw, J. V. S., Thomas, A. C. and Wailes, B., The Bronze Age Settlement at Gwithian, Cornwall in Proc. West Cornwall Field Club, n (1960-1), 200-15. 8 Piggott. M.C ,s MiltonMr , Loch Crannog P.S.A.S.,n i I LXXXVII (1952-3), i43-4> pl- XVI- 4 Cf. Glob, op. cit., 102-8. FIG. 3. The Milton Loch Crannog plough-head and stilt, at present undergoing treatment in the National Museum of Denmark, where Professor A. Steensberg kindly arranged for this diagram to be made EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 271 a tractio y b n plough d wheran , e comparatively sophisticated method f graio s n storage were employed.1 Find irof so n share coulterd san thesn si e areas demonstrate conclusively the use of ploughs with iron fittings from the time of the Iron Age A settlements onwards. The earlier shares illustrated by Payne are either tanged, or very long and narrow with bluntly pointed or rounded tips, and sides running in a straigh socke e bace th th tf klino o t t flange,ep froti e mth without shouldering. Payne suggests tha tangee th t d shares must have belonge plougho dt s likbow-are eth d from D0stru Jutlandpin thasocketeand ,the t d spear-point type belonge plouga dto h with a horizontal share beam. By comparison, the Iron Age C and Romano-British shares are much broader, almosd an t rectangula appearancen Bigbure i r th f o ye exampleOn . s t swella t sou facee th , symmetrically thawides o i s , t i t r ther esockete thath t na , like three Dutch ones r Poel. illustratee seconde Th n va d y Bigburdb similarye b s shar i y t ema bu , 2 woro certaintyto r nfo 'broade Th . ' share from Silcheste narros a earliee s ri th ws a r spear-point shares. None of the features of these shares is reproduced by the Scottish finds, which in themselves are far from forming a homogeneous group. Four of them have been considere Payny grous db hi f broan pei o d shares (Traprain Law, Eckford, Falla Farm, Blackburn Mill) addee thesb o T n .d eca anothe froe mron Traprain Lawt no , hitherto recognised as belonging to the same group. The Scottish material falls into three divisions: (a) Blackburn Mill, DW 113 (fig. 4:1). This is in the form of a wedge-shaped shoe, with a rounded point worn more at the left or landside than at the right, and flanged along its full length. It has a single hole near the back at the left side, perhaps a nail hole. It corresponds in position to nail holes in the somewhat similarly shaped though much slighter share single somn th so f eo stilted Orkney ploughs. The greater amount of wear on the left side of the point must imply that it was used on a plough that turned a furrow slice consistently to the right, and it may be significant that the left flange is noticeably flat and straight. This share came from a metalwork hoard from Blackburn Mill, Cockburnspath, Berwickshire same th eiroe n I hoarth .n s bladundoubten da wa f eo d peat-spade (fig. 4:7) wit characteristis hit c feather (DW 108) anothed an , r blade (DW 109) which, though much corrode thao ds t ther traco feathera n f s eo i similas i , generan i r l proportion acceptee b thicknessn y i secona d s ma da san d d an ,pea t spade blade (fig. 4:6) slantin .3A g line acros face eacf sth e o t roughlha same yth e poin repy -tma resen mare th tdoubline kth lefy b beatind t blade gan th f geo during forging. Pro- fessor Piggott comments that the presence of peat spade blades in a Romano-British context is surprising and that intrusion may be suspected, but as Stevenson points out, they do not in any way stand out from the rest of the metalwork and their contem- poraneity is probable.4 As with some present day peat-spades,5 the socket is narrower

1 Piggott, S., in I. Richmond, Roman and Native in North Britain (1958), 3-4. 2 Van der Pod, op. cit., 162. 3 Piggott, S., Three Metal-Work Hoards of the Roman Period in P.S.A.S., LXXXVH (1952-3), 47. 4 Stevenson, R. B. K., op. cit., 3 (footnote).

Crawford, I., Examples of the Peat Knife in Antiquity in Scottish Studies, vii (1963), PI. II, fig. 3. 6 272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 than the blade. Modern peat spades have a right angled shoulder only at the side opposite the feather. The Blackburn Mill blade, however, has a shoulder at each side. In addition, it has a marked sheer to the right so that its angle brings the feather almost directly unde lina r e drawn dowsockete th side projectd f nth eo an , e th s bottom right corneblade th f eo r correspondingly outwards. This hoard, therefore, provides evidence for both ploughing and peat-cutting. (b) The blades from Eckford, DWA 9 (fig. 4:4) and Falla Farm ££538 (fig. 4is)1 are broader than any of the English finds, that from Eckford being the widest yet found in Britain (Table I, and see Payne, op. cit., 110-11). Though both are broad and flat, the Falla Farm one is very much more solid, though this may simply be due to a difference in the degree of corrosion. Nevertheless the general appearance whetwo n ofexaminethe d sid sideby e suggestthe and s tha thinnesone the t the sof sturdines othee th f rso were original features. Both blades hav eforwara d bend, particularly marked in the one from Eckford. Another shared feature is the sheer blade e rightoe fth th o st , matchin Blackbur e sheee gth th f ro n Mill peat spade blades. t cannoI e ascertainedb t , however e Eckforth d f Falli , an d a Farm blades were shouldere same th en d i way . (c) The Traprain Law blade, GVM479 (fig. 4:2) discussed by Payne, is the narrowest of the Scottish group, with a proportionally longer socket. It is much corroded thao originas ,s tit l shape canno certainle b t y established blade th s t eha bu , smoothly curving shoulder t eacsa h side formin angln ga abouf eo t 150° wite hth sides of the socket. In construction it is rather slender.2 secone th n (d)I d Traprai bladew nLa , GVM48o (fige undeth . , 4r:3) surface forms a straight line with the lower edges of the socket flanges (the twist seen in the sectio s beenha n caused whe missine nth g halwrenches fwa uppee th d off)d r an , surface lies at an angle to the upper side of the socket, which swells up gradually to a maximum height of 1-25 in. In the other examples, on the other hand, with the exception of the Blackburn Mill share, but including most of the southern English ones, it is the upper surfaces of the blades and sockets that form a straight line, the socket flanges protruding below. Sinc eflaa t undersurfac gradualla eand y swelling nec featuree kar presenf so ploughsharesy da t , these pointsomf o likele e eb sar o yt diagnostic importance taked ,an conjunction i n wit sturde hth y natur metale th f eo - work, suggest that GV mus0 Mregardee 48 b t ploughsharea s da t differI . s froe mth Blackburn Mill share, however, in having a shoulder at the right hand side, and the appearance of the remaining part tends to suggest that it was of symmetrical con- structio possibld nan y shouldere lefe th t t sidd a well s ea . Although previous writers have described this share as a 'hoe' and even as a 'very large socketed sickle which has been badly made',3 ther doubo n es i t that rather more than hal widte e fth th f ho socket is missing, since the swelling at the neck is still rising from left to right (seen from the front) at the break. On this basis, a reconstruction indicates a share with a socket comparabl Blackbure sizn ei th tha o t ef o t n Mill share e apparentlTh . y 1 Gunn, P. G., in Trans. Bwk. Nat. Club., xxvii (1929-31), 105; Steer, K. A., in P.S.A.S., L.XXXI (1946-8), 184. 2 Cree, AccountE. . ,J of the Excavations Traprain n P.S.A.S.,n o i w La LVIII (1923-4), 255, fig. II, I. 3 Cree, J. E. and Curie, A. O., Excavations on Traprain Law in P.S.A.S., LVI (1921-2), 235-6; Burley, E., Metal-Work from Traprain Law in P.S.A.S., LXXXIX (1955-6), 205, 212. e blad1 Th r shareo e from South Uist (fig. 4:8) comes from a wheelhouse, Site 10, excavated by Dr Horace Fairhurs e Ministrth r fo t f Publiyo c Building fragmentar o Worksd to an s i originat s I .it r yfo l dimensions to be accurately established, but the curvature and shouldering of the remaining socket flange, combined wit generalle hth y triangular appearanc bladee th f eo , are reminiscent of the undated and unprovenanced Irish blades or shares illustrated as Nos. I and 2 by Duignan in J.R.S.A.I., LXXIV (1944), 137. None of the . ScottisSE h blade same r shareo sth es - sorin sha f o t curving socket flange and the Irish analogy, if valid, suggests tha Soute th t h Uis differena t f fino s di t school and possibly much later. Its condition does not permit much morsaie b do e t meantim s approximatit d ean e dating must wait until the other finds from the site have been analysed indebtem a Fairhursr I . D o dt t for bring- ing it to my attention, and to the Ministry of Public Building and Works for allowing me to examine and illustrate it. 2 The iron share illustrated in fig. 4:9 is described Shetelig'in s Viking Antiquities Greatin Britain Irelandand (Oslo 1940) , 'ironploughn 162a s a , of the Viking period, but a little larger and wider than the usual ploughshares of tha twida times e Ha openin. insertioe th r gfo f no woodee th nploughe parth f o t . Length about 18 cm., greatest width . Badl1cm 2 y rust eaten (fig —7 n 7 .o page 161). Found in September 1880 with a stone vessel (steatite vessel t Swardala ) e near Bonar Bridge, Sutherland.' Shetelig's clai confio mto thaVikine s -i b t ti y gma dent, since steatite vessel e confinesb nee t no do t d Viking contexts. The share, too, is wider than shares of known Viking date. Accordin n PetersenJa o gt , Vikingetidens Redskaper, Oslo 1951, 176-7, the average width of Viking shares is 6'5-9 cm. The widest one 10-s . i know2cm m hi o nt In addition, the majority of Viking shares have flanged sockets and flat blades, comparatively few being in the form of a shoe flanged almost up to the point. Therexampler fo , collectioe eis th e n ,i onl th e f no yon Historisk Museu mOsln i o (No. 21386, from Nyhagen under Nedre Stabu, Opland Fylke; kindly shown to me r bSj0vold)yD , measurin . (12-in 7-y 3 5 b 5 y cm.)b g5 . The comparable Irish shares, on the other hand, equae ar frosize n li emon (cf e Randalstowth . n crannog in Co. Antrim) or larger. They range in width from 4 to about 5^ in. (10-13-75 cm.). It therefore appears that comparisons shoul lookee dIrelanb n i r dfo d rather than in Scandinavia, and in view of the similar second century Blackburn Mill share possibilite e th ,b o t s yha envisaged that we are here dealing with a native type that antedated the Viking invasions, and survived, on Irise th h evidence t leasa , t int tente oth h century.

FIG. 4. i-g. Iron blades and shares. See Table I [to face p. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 273 triangular form of the share would mean that it belonged to an ard rather than to a plough. It came from the rather confused third level of the 1921 excavations on Traprain likels Lawi d dato yt ,an e fro thire mth d century A.D. e ScottisTh h grou bladef po sharesd san , therefore, shows considerable diversity. time Th e range, first-third century, make broadlt si y contemporary wit Englise hth h group, and so it is the more surprising that their character should be so different. Blackbure Th n Mill t parallelesharno s ei Englandn di t rathebu , sharey rb latef so r date from Viking or alleged Viking contexts in Scotland (fig. 4: 9 and n. 2) and Ireland. The Traprain Law share (GVM 479) is also unparalleled. The Eckford blade is broader thafroy nman England, and, likundatee eth d Falla Farm bladea s ha , marke sligha d side d sheeteon an upwaro rt blade d t founth til en no i t Englisn di h blades t repeate Blackburbu e , th n do n Mill peat spad bladee eth bladesf n so o d an , peat and delving spades of the present day. On the whole, least strain is put on the evidence if these two blades are taken to represent a peat or turf spade blade (Eck- delvina ford d an )g spade blade (Falla Farm), sinc lattee eth mucs ri h more stoutly built. Spade cultivation at this period is by no means impossible. Already in the Bronz spadee eAg s with triangular shaped heads were being used along with ploughs fielde th t Gwithia a sn i Cornwall.n i Romano-Britise Th 1 h settlemen t Cottena t - ham in Cambridgeshire has around it groups of what are described by Professor Clark as 'lazy beds',2 and similarly narrow ridges of c. 600 B.C. have been found in

TABLE I EARLY IRON BLADE SHARED SAN S

Suggested Length Socket Width Widthof Lengthof Source Function Overall (Internal) Blade Blade

i. Blackburn Mill Ploughshare 6-+ n 1i 3-7 in. — — DW 113 2. Trapraiw nLa Pea turr to f + 7-25 in. 2-75 in. + 3-25 in. + 2-75 in. GVM 479 spade 3- Traprain Law Ploughshare 6-25 in. — + 2-75 in. 3-4 in. GVM 480 4.. Eckford Peat or turf 7-7+ . 5in 3-6 in. + 5-0 in. 3-. + 8in DWA 9 spade 5. Falla Farm Delving 6-. + 7in c. 3. -6in 4-. + 1in + 2-25 in. E

Notesig+ ne indicateth : s that corrosio wear no reduces rha originae dth l dimensions.

1 Megaw, Thomas and Wailes, op. cit., page 9 of the article.

Clarke, J. G. D., Excavations on the Cambridgeshire Car Dyke in Ant. J., xxix (1949), 145—53. 2 274 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64

SCOR F BROUSTEDO R o o

,'O O STONE-WAUL ED \ CONSTRUCTION SITE OF t STONE- WALLED t \ O CONSTRUCTION i O i i i i i HOUSE \ liJ^^Win^^

STONE-WAILED .4 CONSTRUCTION

\60UNOARY DVKE » \ OF THIS FIELD •

\ REBUILT (' \

"-.-TRACES OF FIELD DYKES O-HEAPS OF FlEtD-GATHERED STONES

IOO 5O O IOOFEET -H-H I I I I- -+-H- —f- Fio . i5 .

FIG. 5. a

Fio. 5: 1-3. Field system Scotlandn si Score Th Brousterf d. o I : , Shetland, from P.S.A.S., LXXXIX (1955-6), 371; 2. Tamshiel Rig, Roxburghshire, from the R.C.A.M. Roxburghshire Inventory, 11, 427, by permission of Controllee th H.Mf ro . Stationery Office . Glenrath3 ; , Peeblesshire, from P.S.A.S., LXXV (1940-1). no , PART OF GLENRATH VILLAGE.

Fio. 5:3 276 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 Holland, under a burial mound of the Migration period in Norway, and on a site of Viking Age in Denmark.1 These were presumably tilled with the spade in the same way as the Hebridean lazy beds at the present day. It is surely not without significance thaspade th t e characteristi lazf cultivatiod co ybe e Highlandsth n ni e th , straight spade or cas dhireach (fig. 16: 1-2), has a blade with a slight forward bend and sometimes a sheer to the right in the manner of the early Scottish blades, though these are in general rather wider. A survey of socket widths of implements in the National Museum, showed that delving spades varied between 2-3 and 2-9 in., peat spades about 2-1 to 2-2 in. (except for the very wide 3-75 in. Galloway type), turf or flauchter spades 2-5 to 2-8 in., and cas chroms 2-9 to 3-6 in. From this it seems that earle th y blades matc broadee hth r grou othee presenf po th bladesy rn o da tt bu , hand facthere th t s ethai peata t spade perioblade th f e 3-o . ds wide i 2in othed an , r blades in the group match this very closely. Modern refinements in shaft sizes were probably not to be expected in the first-second century A.D. It would appear, therefore, that cultivation by both plough and spade is likely havo t e bee . Scotlann SE carrie n i Romano-Britisn dn i d o h times evidence Th . s ei reinforced by the existence of a number of field systems in the area associated with Early Irohile lnAg fort settlementd an s s (fig. 5: 2-3). They have been noten di Roxburghshire at Crock Cleuch, Blakebillend, Grubbit Law, Pudding Law and Tamshie lPeeblesshirn i Rig, d 2an t Glenratea h villagManoe th n ei r Valley, sit3a e tentatively ascribed by Stevenson to the Iron Age. The most noteworthy of these is Tamshiel Rig, where they cover 31J acres. Bot ht Glenrath a here d an , , where eth fields are associated with clearance heaps, the boundaries form groups of long, geometrical looking fields, very much more sophisticated than Score thosth f t dea o Brouste Shetlandn ri . Their lengt breadtd han suggestive har e ratheplouge th f ro h tha spadee n th possibl d plouge an , th f yo h rather tha arde nth . The marky yma s a , Professor Piggott has suggested,4 the stimulus to improved farming and increased grain production that the presence of Roman legions gave, and it is tempting to link iroe th n blades with this expansion. Indeed laboue th , r involve breakinn di langn i d for cultivatio e hillsideth n no s where these field system e founar s d woul cone db - siderable without the use of iron bladed implements.

) Early(4 Historical Times: plough pebbles The last kind of archaeological evidence for early ploughs takes the form of a number of small pebbles of quartzite, or, more rarely, flint. They are worn at one sidconvea o et x face (fig. 6). Example Nationae th n si l Museum come fro site mth e of the Roman fort at Newstead, Roxburghshire, from fields on a farm near Hawick, and at Ancrum Mains, and Dryburgh Mains, Orchardfield, all in the same county; from Inveresk, Midlothian; from St Blane's, Bute (the only one from the W.); and

1 Steensberg, A., Plough Fieldd an Shape n Selectedi FifthPaperse th f o International Congress of Anthrop.d an

Ethnol. Sciences, Philadelphia (1956). 2 R.C.A.M.S. Rxb. Inventory (Edinburgh 1956), i, 21; n, 427, etc. 3Primitive A Stevenson , K. . B . VillageParishe R , th n i of Manor P.S.A.S.,n i LXXV (1940—1), 108—14. 4 Piggott, S., in Richmond, op. cit., 25. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 277

FIG . Characteristi6 . c plough pebbles, with striations running acros convee sth x face

from Jarlshof, Shetland majorite Th . froe yar m Newstea werd dan e foun chancy db e course th gleaninf n i eo fielde Romage relicth r th sfo f so n occupation. At first the pebbles were described as 'polishers' or 'burnishers', and six of a collectio twenty-thref no e were illustrate . CorrieM . sucs J d a 1914n 1 y i h b .s Iwa t t unti publicatioe no th l n 193na descriptioi f 6o woodea f no n plough-sole from Tommerby in Denmark, studded with similarly worn pebbles that their true purpose and the true cause of the wear was recognised.2 Pollen analysis of remains of plough-sole peath n i t e produce basie ddat a th whicf so n eassigneo sols e hth ewa d to the pre-Roman Iron Age in Denmark. Some scepticism was felt about this dating,3 196n i d fres1a an h examinatio procesa y nb lignitf so e extractio T0mmerbe th f no y sole and two others from Andbjerg and Villerso led to a revised dating of A.D. 1500- 1600e plough-solesTh . factn i , , were medieval. Indeed, wooden ploughs using pebbles as an anti-wear device were in use in Jutland as recently as the beginning of

ANDBJERG PLOUGH AFTEft 6LOS FIG. 7. The pebble-studded plough-sole of the Andbjerg plough

1 Corrie, J. M., in P.S.A.S., XLVHI (1913-14), 338—41. 2 Steensberg, A.Muldfjeelsplovn ,E fra Farromersk Jernalder Aarbegerforn i Nordisk Oldkyndighed, Copenhagen (i936)> i3<>-44- 3 Glob, op. cit., 76, 122. 278 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 the nineteenth century, and, in the Auvergne district of France about the same 1 period, the old farmers were said to have 'garnished' their plough-soles with pebbles, pointed at one side, and made expressly for this purpose and sold commercially. Holes were made in the sole and the pebbles knocked in with a hammer. Eight examples of pebbles from France have been illustrated by fitienne Patte. 2 thesf o e e ag plough-pebble e Th t preciselno s si y knownDanise th t hbu , plough- soles are late medieval, and one of the two pebbles from Jarlshof was found in the filling of a Viking outhouse (Outhouse i G, room 2) of twelfth or thirteenth century date. The outhouse was used for some time, and seems to have been ruinous by 3 occupatioe th f Phaso I enVI (thirteenth-fourteenth century) uses wher wa dfo t ni dumping ashe t knowrubbishd no san s i t whan a t I . t leve pebble th lfounds ewa , nor did the filling contain any finds of significance for dating. All that can be said is tha pebble th t likels earliee i b o yt r tha fourteente nth h century. probabls i t I e that ploughs with pebble-studded soles reached this country from Scandinavia. The occurrence of pebbles in Midlothian and Roxburghshire must be explaine face th t y thadb t they have also been found acros bordere sth , particularly . YorkshirE . Lincolnshiren i N d ean aren a ,Vikinf ao g settlement from whice hth plough-type represente pebblee th y db s probably sprea a proces y db f peacefuso l diffusion. Eight English pebbles have been illustrated by C. W. Phillips, who notes withoue b t thano ty tsignificanc 'itma e tha presene th t t distributio objecte th f no s s i confined to regions of vigorous Scandinavian occupation'. At the same time, the 4 French evidence shows they are not confined to such areas and future finds may fill out their present distributio Scotlandn ni t possiblbu , t veryno y much. The majority of the pebbles have a convexly worn face across which parallel striations run. Occasionally examplese occuth f o re witon faceshn o o wea tw s a ,n ro Jarlshof pebbles (HSA 774) and on two from Newstead.5 These must have fallen out in the course of ploughing, and have been picked up and re-used. There are also a few from Newstead with a flat, or only slightly curved face, highly polished, and with very light striations running with, not across, the curve. It is a moot point whether this kind efface could have been produce pebbla f intdr i beed fa oplought a e ha nse - solprotected ean d behin knoda r haro t dwoode parth f r whetheo o t, r these ear something different altogether ratey face an th ,t remainA . s tha presence th t f eo plough pebbles does suggest the use in Scotland of large ploughs with mould boards som eearl timthe ye in medieval period. archaeologicae Th l evidence, therefore, shows that cultivatio plouge th s y nb h wa goinShetlann i n g o Orkned dan y with instrument typd ar ee furnisheth f so d with r shareba stonf so e fro t leasma t Bronz timese eAg . Presumably ards with wooden shares were at work elsewhere in Scotland, like the two Iron Age specimens from . ScotlandSW iroe Th n .. impl blade n SE possibla e share d ye f th o san th e f so eus

1 Steensberg, op. cit., 143. 1 Patte, £., Les ' Galets-Clous' de la Gating des Deux-Sevres in Gattia, ix (1952), 56-59. ' Curie P.S.A.S.,n i , ,J. LXX (1935-6), 265-6 figd . an ,15 , i; Hamilton cit. . C.. R op , . 173,J . 1 Phillips . W.C , , Pebbles from Early Ploughs Englandn i P.P.S.n i (1938), iv (N.S.), 338-9 alse ;se o Evans, J., Ancient Stone Implements, London (1897), 266, fig. 183. . cit.6 op , Corrie , 338M. . ,J EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 279 iron-shod asymmetricaardn a f ,o l plough spadef o cuttind delvinr r sfo fo an , d ggan peat and turf. Finally the plough pebbles, mostly from reasonably low-lying ground, suggest a heavy type of mould-board plough of early medieval date.

II. SINGLE-STILTED PLOUGHS Shetlandn I , Orkney, Caithness Outee th d r Islesan , particulaa , r typ plougf eo h survived int nineteente oth h century. Though formal variant distinguishede b n sca the feature common to all is the single handle or stilt on the left of which the ploughman walked, and it is, therefore, convenient to refer to them as single-stilted ploughs. The term is well attested from as early as the eighteenth century, and distinguishes them clearly from the two-stilted ploughs that eventually replaced them. A technical point that needmade b o st e clea thas ri t sinc l haveal e some for mould-boarf mo r do f mould-strokero t se a righe th t t a sside , they canno describee b t symmetricas da l ploughs as has been done by Haudricourt and Delamarre, though it would not be 1 difficul removo t t asymmetricae eth l feature turd an sn them into symmetrical ards. Since, however, they are only one stage removed from ards, there is reason for thinking that cultivation has been going on in the Northern Isles with ards or a related form of plough for a period approaching 4000 years, though it would be rash to postulat etraditioa unbrokef no n continuity. Whatever implementse werus n ei when the Vikings started settling are likely to have been modified by those they brought with the werr mo e familiar wit t homeha documentard an , y evidence th f eo seventeent eighteentd han h centuries shows that Norwegian influence laste lonn do g after these islands passed into the control of the Scottish crown. A specific statement was made in 1652, at the time of the Protectorate, in the Proposals of Orkney and Shetland, that 'our shyre in all tymes bygone has had Comerc tradingd ean e with Norrwa importingr yfo r fishingboatef eo ou r d sfo an e other Timber requisite for ploughinge of the ground which cannot be had elsewhere'.2 Presumabl reference yth plougo t s ei h beams reasonable b , o whict d hha y substantia particulaa f o d an l r shape thereford an , t easilno e y comtreelesn i y eb s islands. It is unlikely that ploughs were brought in ready made, since no close similarities are to be observed between the single-stilted ploughs of Scandinavia and Northere th n Isles, thoug frame hth e stil handlr extano te th f eo t Shetland ploughs si broadly reminiscen certaif o t n Scandinavian ploughs, e.g. that from Nord-Jamtland illustrated by Leser.3 It is likely, in view of Gifford's remark that the poorer in- habitant Shetlanf so d coulimporte y t afforbu dno o t d d wood, that ploughs were 4 landlorde th y mad b supplied p san eu theio dt r tenant s steelbosa w goods r elso , e crudely made by the latter from such driftwood as was available. It has not been fully realised how much information is available on Scottish single-stilted ploughs e followinTh . g table brings togethe majoe th r r sources, area by area, and summarises the main features brought out by each description.

Haudricourt, A. G. et M. J. B.-Delamarre, UHomme et la Charrue, Paris (1955), 191- 21 Cromwellian Terrye , edS. Th . . C , Union (S.T.S. 1902), 125. ' Leser , EntstehungP. , und Verbreitung des Pfluges, Miinster (1931), 165. 4 Gifford, T., Historical Descr. of Zetland, London (1786), 52. 280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 TABLE II SINGLE-STILTED PLOUGHS

District Description and Source Team Control Technique Number Name SHETLAND 'Plough Sockd san 4 oxen in broad Driver; side Cullers slended an r band (abreast) control by little - (Monteith' 1 ploughman '

Fetlar 'A piec tref er o efo — — — — — orderoun a s (beam) of a plough' - (Old- Lore Misc.2 1732-5) Del ting Crooked piecf eo Oxen with yokes Driver, pulling Furrows 6 wood, with slender, on oxen with levelled and pliable piece of ropes round clods broken oak fastened to ox horns; side with spades yokes - (O.S.A., i control (1790, 391-2) Unst stilte On ; double- a horses + 2 oxen; Driver; left side plougho N - feathered stock [sic] 4 horses; or 4 control ing before -(O.S.A., v (1793), oxen, abreast spring '92-3) Dunrossness (O.S.A., (n iv 793) , 4 oxen abreast 393) Sandwicn i d kan Cunningsburgh; horse4 s abreast at Ness

Aithstind gan See quotation 4 oxen abreast Side control See quota- 14 Sandsting belo 293. w(p )- tion below (O.S.A., vii (1793), (P- 293) 585-6)

Bressay, Burra (O.S.A., x(i795), — — — 6 — and Quarff 196) Northmaven (O.S.A., xn (1794), No. of 355) ploughs reduced lo 26 Hibbert i8223 [ SeAithstine eth ga id Sandsting accoi:nt below]

ORKNEY Littl lightd ean , 'Although some Lifted and one stilt - (J. of their ground carried to the Brand4 1683) be stony, yet other side at the their beaste sar ridga en f do e wea unabld kan e througo g o t h with a plough cony oan f - siderable weight'

Ploughd sha coulters, socks, skys lived an , s (see Glossary) — (Proc. Ant.Ork Soc." (1734))

1 Sibbald, R. (ed.), Descr. Orkney and Zetland, Edinburgh (1711), 5. 2 Old-Lore Misc., iv (1911), 121. 3 Hibbert , Descr.S. , Shetland Islands, Edinburgh (1822), 459. 4 Brand, J., Descr. Orkney and Zetland, Edinburgh (1701), 18-19. 1734A 6 Orkney Inventory Proc.n i Ork. Ant. Soc., i (1922-3). 65 , EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 281 TABL I EI (cont.)

District Description Sourceand Team Control Technique Number Name ORKNEY (cont.) House or (Proc. Ork. Ant. : ——— — — — 'An old Place of Soc * (174?)) stilted Burray plewgh"

(G. Low2 1 773) [See quotation below, p. 300] Light ploughs- 2 or 4 horses; _ _ _ _ (J. Campbell3 2 horses and 1774) 2 cows Holme stile tOn (O.S.A., horse4 s yoked Carried under — — — v ( i 793) > 409) a 2threr x ; o e rounthm ear d abreast (Stratha f o d -en e th naver breed) ridge Rousad yan (O.S.A., vii (1793), Small sized — — Upwards _ . Egilsay 339) horses, brought of 200 from Strath- naver at 2 years somoldd an , e from Shetland; teaa n mi 4 r 3o

Crosd san (O.S.A., vu (i 793), _ _ 'Well suited Crosskirk 'single Burness, 473) t oligha t 41 ploughs handed' North soild an , for 492 Ronaldsay breake sth arable acres and ground very Burness Ladykirk well' 24 for acre8 28 s Ladykirk 50 for 600 acres Ronaldsay 43 for 344 acres Total: 158 Kirkwall and 'One stild an t _ _ No plough- _ _ StOla strange kinf do ing till irons' - (O.S.A., spring v" (1793), 541-2) Firtd han 'One slit' _ _ Good for _ Side Stenness [sic= stilt] - last plough- plough (O.S.A., xiv (1795) r herfo eg in 126) crop; bad in stony, strong ground; especially oatland

Birsay and (O.S.A., (1795)v x , horses3 ; 523 _ _ 142, the _ Harray 319, 323) horse parisn si h biggest farmers having up to 3

1 Inventory of House Placer o ofBurray 1747 Proc.n i Ork. Ant. Soc., xn (1933-4), 4^- 2 Low, G., A Description of Orkney (1773) in Proc. Ork. Ant. Soc., n (1923-4), 56 and illus. facing 58. 3 Campbell, J., Political Survey of Britain, i, London (1774), 666. 282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 TABL I EI (cont.)

District Description and Source Team Control Technique Number Name ORKNEY (cont.) Stronsay and (O.S.A., (v ix 795) , '4 horses abreast, — Ploughs — Side Eday 399) or broad band' about 15 plough acres Sc. (c. i8f Eng.)

Westray (O.S.A., xvi (1795). 4 or 3 horses _ __ 144 Single- 252, 260) stilted

Papa Westray — — — — 24 —

Sandwicd kan (O.S.;!., xvi (1795), Mainly 3 horses 'In holding this Each tills 227 __ Stromness 417-18) abreast; some- plough, the averagn a e time , rarels2 . y4 ploughman of gi acres Oxen kept for bends to the harrowing or soil, and may carting peat - welde e b l nominated Curvus arator'

Shapinsay One slender stilt 4 animals yoked Driverd an ; Furrow — — and a slender abreast, witha ploughmano wh badly beam - (O.S.A., straight pole 'holds it by this turned, it XVH (1796), 228-9) l theifixeal o rt d stilt, and directs either stands noses, held in it by a short edgs it en o the middle by batton held loose r fallo s back the driver in his hand for with surface that purpose' uppermost

Orphir One stilt, a small 3 horses abreast, Driver; plough- Furrow c. IOO _ pointed sock, a. pulley b n do man carries 3 in. deep, coulter 'resembling halter fixeo t d pattle, to clean and thrown kaia l gully'o tw , midmose on t the plough, to a ofn i f sticks fastened serv secona s ea d slanting horizontalle th o yt stilt, and to direction e ploughheath f do , throw at the instead of a horses when mould-board - necessary (O.S.A., xix (1797) 405, 408)

Evid ean One stilt - (O.S.A., 3—4 horses _ Bad in stiff _ Side- Rendall (1798)x x , 249-50) abreast soil, goon di plough previously well-tilled soil

_ Culler and sock 4 abreast; oxen 'The holder . . . No tilling _ _ Ib 2 weighn i .t no t yoked with lye witn so s hhi till spring - (Barry1 1805) 'cheattd san side' haims and breochams'

_ (Marwick2 1936) [See fig. 10:d 2an Glossary] _ _ Side- plough, Stilltie

1 Barry, G., Hist. Orkney Islands, Edinburgh (1805), 447. This account, in a different hand at the end of Jo Ben's Descriptio Insularum Orchadianum (allegedly 1529) is unlikely to be earlier than the late eighteenth century, sinc t esee oxe no havm o t o nd e been equipped with collars until this period. 2 Marwick, Olde G.Th , Roman Plough (Kirkwall 1936). EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 283 TABLE II (cant.)

District Description and Source Team Control Technique Number Name CAITHNESS Reay (O.S.A., vii (1793), — — — 181 (type — 575) not men- tionet dbu prob. single- stilted) Wick One stilt called the 4 garrons or — — — — 'steering tree' oxen abreast covered witha sheep-skin. Coulter not through beam but through key- (O.S.A., (1794)x , 22-23) Dunnet Probably single- horse4 oxer so n _ — Most have — stilted - (O.S.A., abreast (tenants' w onefe a , XI (1794), 253 ploughs) have two Watten (O.S.A., xi (1794), horses4 , oxen, Driver, holding Some will _ _ 266) r cowo s abreast the cattle tied turn the drawing by with halters mould to a 'theets' (traces) depth of 4 in. Latheron Probably single- 4 animals _ — 343 (Prob. — stilted - (O.S.A., abreast single- xvii (1796), 25-26 stilted) Halkirk d stilte ha t On i ; 'Short yoke' of Stilt held by It 'broke the 'For some _ 'scarcely a side abreas4 t com- ploughman's earth as it years past board' - (O.S.A., mon ; 'long yoke' hand against his turned it, there is xix (1797), 32-33) of 2 x 2 rare right thigh servee dth none of purposa f eo thee b mo t first harrow- seen' ing as it went along, and good crops were raised after it' — (Sinclair1 (1795)) — — — — Thrapple plough _ Beam, hea soler do , [See further _ £ acre _ Thraple key, land dan quotation below] ploughed plough mould-boardf so per day wood; mould- board had convex side outwardsd an , was 'ribbedo t ' break the soil - (Henderson2 1814)

WESTERN ISLES Lewis Plough only lately — — — — — known, still onlya fe w- (Walker 3 c. 1765)

1 Sinclair, J., Agric. Northern Counties and Islands of Scot., London (1795), 203-4. 2 Henderson, J., Agric. Caithness, London (1812), 56—57. 8 Walker, J., Oeconomical Hist. Hebrides in Tram. Gael. Soc. Intl., xxiv (1899-1901), 127.

PSA T 284 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64

TABLE II (ami.)

District Description Sourceand Team Control Technique Number Nome WESTERN ISLES Barvas, Lewis 'A crooked small 4 horses, pulled Driver; side — 90 — piece of wood, on on by halter control the top of which is fixed a stilt or handle'- (O.S.A., " xix (1797), 266) Stornoway, Not unlike the Single Lewis Chinese plough — stilted (O.S.A., xix (1797), 248) Harris . longin e 7 on ,. ft 4 4 horses abreast handle, mould- board fastenen do by 2 leather thongs, sock and coulter bound together at the point by a rin f irogo n — (Walker, . 17651c )

— (Buchanan,2 1793) r mor2o e little Ploughman went — — Cromman horses with left side gadd foremost North Uist One handle. Little Ploughman holds known beyone dth stilt in right Long Island. hand, and a lash prinGivey b p -nu in his left cipal farmers —

307^8)'' XI" South Uist Discontinued no Crom- more than 20 nan-gadd years ago — (N.S.A., xiv (1845), 191)

Barra Discontinued — 'Required the — — — • Crom- (X.S.A., xiv (1845), labour of 4 men na-gadd and 3 horses'

Crooked tree, with 4 ponies abreast Stilt held with square mortisr efo right hand, pattle plough-head, in left hand; adjustable by driver pulled a wedges; small stilt; pole fixed across vertical coulter — the ponies' noses (Hogg3 1881)

— (Dwelly4) [See figI . 0:3, and Glossary] — — — Crann-

nan-gadd ibid.1 , 138, and in Scot. Hist. Rev., xix (1921), 43. 2 Buchanan, J. L., Travels in the W. Hebrides, London (1793), 153. Ettricke Th 3 Shepherd . Geog.Lewisn i Sc n i Mag., 8 (1942)5 , 67-71 (fro . mJ Hogg' s Letters r WalterSi o t Scott, 1881). 4 Dwelly, E., Illustrated Gaelic Dictionary (1930), s.v. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT5 SCOTLANN 28 I S D (i) Distribution Numbersd an From Table II it will be seen that the single-stilted plough was found in the Norther Outed nan Caithnessrn i Isled san . Ther seventeenth-centurs ei y evidence for it in Shetland and Orkney, but not elsewhere. It is known that the machars of Harris and Taransay were ploughed in preparation for oats in the mid-sixteenth century, and that in the 16903 the brown, sandy soil of Colonsay received three 1 ploughings, that there was a type of plough drawn by four horses in North Uist, and thae nativeth t f Heiskio s r made draught rope r attachinfo s g their e horseth o t s plough out of long strips of seal-skin, but there is no means of telling whether these 2 ploughs were single or double stilted. Northere th n I n Isles single-stiltee th , d ploug almoss hwa t universal, thougy hb the end of the eighteenth century its numbers had been much reduced by the increase spadn i e cultivation resulting from artificially created socia economid an l c factors. 17905e th n I , single-stilted plough foue th r n sparishei s where numbers were specified in the Old Statistical Account totalled 52; seven parishes of Orkney were served by no fewer than 996 ploughs at the same period. As each plough was capable of tilling 1r mor2o e acres Orknee size th f th ,e o y crop must have been considerable. Indeed, Orkney exported grai Norwao nt Shetland yan d unti eighteente th l h centuryd an , earle th yn i sixteenth century, Boece claimed that Orkney bere mad strongese eth t ale in Albion.3 If the numbers given for the parishes of Reay and Latheron in Caithness apply to single-stilted ploughs, as is not unlikely, then this county was served by over 500. In the Outer Isles there was a concentration of 90 in the parish of Barvas, Lewis, in the 17905. Statistically, therefore, Orkney and Caithness were the areas of most intensive cultivation by the single-stilted plough, though the re- ductio numbern i borne Shetlann si b o mindn t ei s dha . One of the main problems here relates to the origin and distribution of the single- stilted plough of the W., the crann-nan-gadd. Walker's remark in 1765 that it was somethin n Lewii w s corroboratei sne g y sixteentb d d seventeentan h h century accounts of spade cultivation there, and indeed a high proportion of the arable acreag Lewin ei stils s i cultivated o ls crann-nan-gadde t th look I .f i s sa sprea Lewiso dt , presumably from Harris, abou mid-eighteente th t h century evidence Th . e shows sit existence in the Long Island, the Uists, and Barra. It is not certain that it was found in the Inner Isles or the Mainland. Logan claimed that it was used on farms in Argyll till about 1810, but his evidence is vitiated by his statement that 'in some s calleplace e Rotherawa dth t si m plough', whicentireln a s hi y different thing.4 However face th ,t tha crann-nan-gade th t Nationae th n i l Museum came from Islay may support Logan's extension of the distributional pattern, though there is, unfortunately, no background information to prove that this plough was actually used in Islay. Pending more definite evidence, it is shown in the distribution map (fig. 8)

as confined to the Outer Isles. Munro 1 . (ed.)W . ,R , Monro' . IslesW s of Scot., Edinburg Londod han n . (1961)86 . 80 , Martin , Descr.M. ,. IslandsW of Scotland, Glasgow , (1884)24865 , . 53 ,

2 Brownn I 8 . HumeP , , Scotland Before 1700, Edinburgh (1893). 92 , * Logan , Scottish,J. Gael, n, London (1831). 89 , 286 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT7 N SCOTLAN28 I S D (2) Team and man-power The maximum number of animals in the team of the single-stilted plough seems eighteente th havo t f o ed beehen e ncentury th four t A . , oxen were more commonly used than horses in Shetland, though teams of mixed oxen and horses were known in Unst, and of horses alone in the Ness district of Cunningsburgh. In Orkney, teams of horses were in the majority, and a yoke of three abreast was as popular as one of four abreas more th en i t prosperous parts three Th .e hors l likelihooeal tean i ms i d relate e considerable b th o t o dt e impor sturdf o t y horses from Strathnaver.1 Caith- ness farmers used horses or oxen abreast impartially, and in the Outer Isles only horse mentionede sar earliese Th . t sources linguistirefee th oxeno t r d an , c evidence also conclusiopointe th o t s n that plough teams were commonl oxef yo earlien ni r times Orkneyn I . foue th , r horses yoked abreast were named, from righ lefo t t facing

yokx o en froA FIGWhit e . m9 th . e Moss, Shapinsay, Orkney, from P.S.A.S., vi (1864-6), 398 the team, the fur-horse, the fur-scam, the volar-scam, and the outend-horse. The fur-horse 2 wahorse th s e that walkeploughee th n do d land (first recorded i8253), ane dth opposite th t a e eoutend-horse sideon e .th s Thewa fur-scam walke furrowe th d n di an , .its mate, the volar-scam, on the land. Volar is from Old Norse vgllr, a field, and scam frod NorsmOl e skammr, short o understanT . d these b terms o t e tea s th ,m ha changed into oxen Aithstine , th yoke n i Sandstind s da gan g account wit outee hth r oxen linked by a long wooden yoke, the inner pair by a short one. It is to this short thae tere on tth m scam, . 'short-yokesc ox', refers. Jakobsen glosse wore sth d skammjok from Shetland as 'the yoke which is borne by the two inside oxen; a shorter yoke in comparison wit e longehth r utjok outsid o whictw e borns ehi th oxen'.y b e On 4 example of a skammjok has been preserved in the National Museum since 1868. It came fro e Whitm f th pea o unde n . i etft Moss6 r , Shapinsay, Orkney (fig. 9). Clearly Orknee th , y terms have been transferred from oxe Nors e horseso nt th d e an , origin worde th f so s scam volard an implies tha four-oa t x team yoked abreaso g y ma t back to Norse times in the Northern Isles. The 'long yoke' of four animals two by two is rare. It occurred in the parish of yokine Holmth f o g n Orkne ei e arrangements on s ya d similarlan , Halkirkn yi , Caithness eighteenth-centurn a t seemI e .b o t s y innovatio single-stiltes a r fa s na d plough concernede sar , thoughavy ma eearliee t hrectangularbeea i us n n no ri - framed, two-stilted ploug ligha f ho t type known from Caithnes Highlands.e th d san

5 text continued on p, sgz

1 Old-Lore Misc., n (1909), 192-3; m (1910), 74-75. 2 N.S.A., xv (1845), 96.

3 Jamieson , Scottish,J. Dictionary, Edinburgh (1825), s.v. Jakobsen4 , J., Dictionary of the Shetland Norm, London (1928), s.v. 6 Megaw, B. R. S., in Scottish Studies, vi (1962), 218-23, Pis. X, XI. 288 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64

o £

ID EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND

TABLI EII GLOSSARY, AND KEY TO NUMBERED FIGURES (fig. 10)

Shirreff, Marwick, Names from Gaelic Names Standard Name 1814 (O)1 1903 (O)2 Other Sources from Dwelly* or Description

i. Arr-trees Stang (lad an ) Orderous, 1734* (O.N. ardr, foregill (ib) (S). plough) (O.N. styng, a Astrees, 1825, Earrghas Beam pole secone th ; d Jamieson (S). element of fore- (O.N. ardr, a e b y gillma ploug O.Nh+ . development ass, pole, beam) from O.N. kjol, keel, cf. Norw. dial. kj0l, bottom para f o t plough)

2. Oure-tree (Sc. Stilt, hannal Steering-tree, Lamh-chrann Stilt5 ouier = over, (handle) O.S.A., x (1794), upper) 23 (C)

(O.Ny Sk . .3 Sproll Sky, Proc. Ork. Oirthilleach Corresponds to skid, piece of Ant. Soc. (1734) the ground- wood, board) (O)6 wrest

4. Earth-skies, Nether ski (40), Ear-sky, 1825 Bord-uireach Mould-strokers ear-skies, milly i (46)ask , Jamieson (O) or mould board lug-skies. iwerskr o i (prob. O.N. hirspa pin (4*:) Erskai, 1908 ardr, plough (O.N. nidr, Jakobse) n(S O.N.+ skid, down; milli, board) between \yfirr o efri, upper; hirsp stona= y ground)

. Merki5 n epi Markal pin Mercal, Meirgeal Triangulan rpi (S.N.D. sug- O.S.A., vn (S.N.D. thinks mortised into gests Norw. (1793), 585(8); thiborrowa s si - plouge th h head dial, merg, 1825 Jamieson ing from Norse, to hole dth marrow + kolv (0); 1908, but ? rather sharsocke th e,= piece of wood, Jakobsen (S) from Orkney beam but this is Norn) uncertain)

6. Sock Sewch, sewchar, — Soc. Share or sock or sock

1 ShirrefF, J., Agric. Orkney and Shetland, Edinburgh (1814). a Marwick, G., op. cit. 8 Dwelly, . cit.E.op , , s.v. Crann-nan-gad. 4 Old-Lore Misc., iv (1911), 121. * The term stilt is used erroneously for the rear-piece by Jirlow and Whitaker inSc. Studies, i (1957), 75 ff. • Proc. Ork. Ant. Soc., i (1922-3), 65. ago PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 TABL I (eon/.EII )

Shine/, Marwick, Names from Gaelic Names Standard Name 1814 (0) 1903 (0) Other Sources from Dwelly or Description

7. Coulter Cooler — Coltair Coulter

8. Live or life Sewchar stang- Live, Proc. Ork. Mas a' chroinn Rearpiece (S.N.D. thinks pos bear o t m Ant. Soc. (1734), (wit iron ha n from Sc. luif, (O).1 Head, plate, ciasan, palm of hand; O.S.A., VH to protece th t but not certain) (1795), 585-6- bottom) Stock, O.S.A., (1793)v . '92-3- Key, O.S.A., x (i794). 23 . Has9 s spang

10. Thraws spang Bridal — Na goid Iron bands (O.N. hah, neck)

1 1 . Mow, contain- Kyolks, con- Mool-iron, 1929, Sron. It was Muzzle inmowe gth - taining the Marwick (O); iron shodd an , pin (Sc. mow trauchle pin. mull, 1908, ran on the = mouth; (O.N. kjdlki, Jakobsen (S) ground O.N. muli, jaws) mouth, muzzle)

12. Nic or a(r)se — — — Angle between stilt and rea'rpiece

13. Steer-pin — — — Strut between stilt and rearpiece

14. — — — —' Iron staple for pressing down with the pattle

15. Pattle — — — Plough staff

1 6. Soam, or Trauchle soam (i6a druin A ) m Draught rope draught mor, long part (usually c. 5 ft. of rope long) (166 druin A ) m beag, short part of rope '7- — Savir soam — Saving rope, Dotmel linked with dotmel

1 Proc. Ork. Ant. Soc., i (1922-3). 65 , EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT SCOTLANN I S D 291 TABLE III (cont.)

Shirreff, Marwick Names from Gaelic Names Standard Name .181 4(0) I9<>3(0) Other Sources from Duielly or Description

1 8. — Dotmel — Little piece of * wood within jaw ploughf so . This arrangement prevents the trauchln epi from snapping unde suddea r n strain

'9- — Nobe Strengthener over or under join between stand gan foregill

20. — Crobe — — Strengthener under join

21. Master-tree Ammle, amble, Yoke (4 ft.) 1814 Henderson1 (C); 1907 Nicolson (C) 63-64; 1908 Jak. (S) 51929 Marwick (O). (cf. Dan. and Swed. dial. hammel, Norw. humul, swingletree)

22. Twa beast — Twa's ammel, — Swingletree to tree (a| ft.) 1907 Nicolson whic othero htw s (C) are attached

23. E'e (one) beast — Sma' ammel, Na greallagan Swingletree trein.0 e(2 ) 1907 Nicolson (plural) (C)

Abbreviations used Glossaryin C = Caithness. O = Orkney. S = Shetland. Jamieso . JamiesonJ n= , Scottish Dictionary, various editions. Jakobse . JakobsenJ = n , Dictionary of the Shetland Norn (London), 1928. Marwick = H. Marwick, The Orkney Norn (Oxford), 1939. . NicolsoNicolsoB . . D HomeJ n n= i n , County of Caithness, Wick (1907), 63-64. S.N.D. = Scottish National Dictionary. 1 Hcnderson, J., op. cit., 56. 2 29 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 As Payne points out, it is represented in the Bronze Age rock engravings of the Italian Maritime Alps, and in Wales had supplanted the team of four abreast by the end of the Middle Ages.1 In Scotland, however, the team of four abreast survived well into nineteente th h century. An essential part of the team was the driver (fig. 13: 1-2). He walked backwards , pullinfronn it i f o animalte gropeth y b n sso round their horns haltersa y b ,y b r o , pole fixed across their noses carriee H . hands dhi lasa n hi , usin mako t e t gi e th animals pull as equally as possible so that the furrow breadth could be better regu- lated.2 According to Captain Burt, the driver kept the four animals a little apart in the middle, so preventing the new furrow from being trodden down.3 Logan is alone in suggesting that the driver put his arms about the necks of the two central animals to avoid falling.4 addition I ploughman'ne therth s ewa s assistant, invariablusuallt no t ybu yboya , middl e beae preso th t th s n keemf o so t ewhoso ploug e wa soie p th th b l ejo n h i (PI. XLVII cleao t loos , e workind e f ni)th o th an e, f d earto en t g e hpartou th t sa rige th . This eart allowes hwa accumulato dt mounda n ei Orknen i , y practice, lates wa r carried baskets.n i an g ri d e bac5th Plougho kt Shetlane th f so d type, with a frame handle, do not seem to have needed the presence of an assistant. t wilI apparene b l t tha single-stiltee th t d plough require dlaboua r forc fouf eo r r threo o animale tw persons d san t musI . made b t e clear, however, that this labour confiney deployments single-stiltee wa it forc th o d o n dt ean n i s dwa , ploughs wa t I . equally characteristic of the light, rectangular framed, two-stilted ploughs that have been recorde e Highlande fringth th f o n edi s from Caithness through Perthshire dow Gallowayo nt .

) Terminology(3 Fig. 10 and Table III (pp. 288-91) give the terminology of the single-stilted plough and its parts. Wherever possible, etymologies are given, which, taken together, show Norse influence to have been strong in the Northern Isles and Caith- ness. Onl e Gaeliyon c othee nameth rn o ,hand havn ca , a Norse e origin even tentatively ascribeeacn I . h it case o standardt e th , d nam descriptior eo gives ni s na far as possible according to the names used in Research on Ploughing Implements6 though standard equivalents do not always exist.

(4) Typology and Structural Features Illustrations, photographs, and surviving examples (Table IV) of single-stilted ploughs show that they fall into three or possibly four geographically and to some extent typologically differentiated groups. There are indications that some of the points of difference developed comparatively recently, post - 1800.

1 Payne Arch.n i , , ciJ. v F. , (1947), 83-87. 2 Henderson . cit.. op , 56 , ,J. 3 Burt, E., Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, n, London (1759), 134-8. * Logan , . cit.J.. ,op 90 , 5 Marwick, . cit.G.op ,, 4-5. Publishe e Internationath y db l Secretaria r Researc fo tHistore th n f Agriculturaho yo l Implements (Copenhage6 n 1956). EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 2Q3 (i) Shetland. The Shetland plough used in the parish of Aithsting and Sandsting in the eighteenth century was described as follows: A crooked piece of wood, bent (naturally) almost to a right angle, forms the beam; to which is fixe stave k piecda oa f ,eo abou fee7 t t long, which mus vere b t y pliable pressur e yield th an ,o dt e of the driver's hand, when he would deepen his fur (furrow). The coulter stands almost even up and down, and is always too short. A square hole is cut through the lower end of the beam, and the mercal, a piece of oak about 22 inches long, introduced, which, at the other end, holds the sock sky.d an 1 This matches precisely the 1793 illustration of an Unst plough, and also Hibbert's one (fig. 13: 2-3), though his description is largely borrowed from the account above, 2 and his drawing may have been influenced accordingly. The three features brought out by eighteenth-century sources are: the coulter mortised vertically int horizontae oth beamle parth lone f o tth ; g mercal r plougho - mould-strokere th head d an ; righe th ploughe t a s th sid e thref o eTh .e extant Shetland ploughs (fig. n : 1-2), all of nineteenth century date, have similarly fitted coulters e plough-headTh . , however s beeha , n sophisticated into something more nearly resembling the share-beam of a conventional plough. The fore-end of the sky or ground wrest is joined to the plough-head to form a neck on to which the share is buttes i socketedy rear-ene sk d th e againsd th f an ,do lowee paia th t f f shoro o r t mould boards set at different angles. These twin mould boards look like joiner made features, possibly developed afte introductioe th r sowf no n grasses gave ris tougheo et r swards that required turning over rather than thi, breakinso s f typI mouldf . eo gup - board cannot be regarded as a traditional feature, as Payne implied,3 but serves as a distinguishing feature nineteenth-centurth f o e y Shetland ploughs e lonTh g. plough-head is present in all the Shetland ploughs. Associated with it there is usually a frame handle or stilt with a short handgrip that lies immediately above the rear- ploughe piecth f eo . With suc arrangementn ha ploughmae th , n could exert direct downward pressur keeo et ploug e grounde passistann th th a n d hi an ,preso t t n so the beam was then unnecessary. Where he is present, in the Outer Isles, Caithness and Orkney, the fore-end of the stilt is attached immediately above the rearpiece or beame th f o , sometimeonlp to ylittla n o front n ei i f so t supporte shora y db t strur o t extension a y b n upward rearpiecee th f so , producin gfaina t reflectio Shetlane th f no d frame handle, or else having no strut at all but nevertheless protruding several feet back beyon heade dth strictese .th Thin i s tsi sens 'steerinea g (directing) tree'n o , which great downwards pressure was not intended, so that the services of an assistant were rendered necessary. As regards the shape of the beam, only the Unst plough has any degree of downward curvature (fig. 13: 3). (ii) Orkney. Orkney provides the earliest recorded illustration of a single-stilted plough and a three horse team on William Aberdeen's estate plan of c. 1770 (fig. 13: i). The beam is downwards curving, like that of the Unst plough, and it has the

1 O.S.A., vii (1793), 585-6. Hibbert , Descr.S. , Shetland Islands, Edinburgh (1822), 459. 23 Payne Arch.}.,n i , F. , civ (1947). 88 , 294 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64

FIG. ii. 1-2. Shetland ploughs in the N.M.A.S.: PAA 2 (formerly MP 82) and PAA 9 (formerly MP 585) respect- ively. In 2 the beam is mortised into the rearpiece, which is carried up to serve as a strut for the stilt. 3. In Tanker- ness House, Orkney; 30. The angled mortice of the coulter; 4. In Stromness Museum, Stromness, Orkney; 5. The remaining part of the beam and rearpiece of a plough in Tankerness House; 6. An Orkney 'side-plough' sketched by John Firth in 1914, and copied by A. W. Johnston in 1915. From the Johnston papers, by courtesy of E. Mac- gillivray, Librarian, Kirkwall. The dim stone was a holed pebble carried to bring luck; 7. Crann-nan-gadd in the N.M.A.S., PAA 6 (formerly MP 388) same arrangement of mould-strokers t differsI . , however thren ,i e n respectsa s ha t I . apparently much shorter plough-head, the coulter is mortised at an angle into the rearpiece t doe i t hav d same sno ean ,th e kin framf do e handle. These three features are repeated in Shirreff's 1814 diagram (fig. 10: i), and on four of the six surviving EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 295 examples (fig. 11: 3-4). The chief difference between Aberdeen's plough and nineteenth-century ploughs is that the beams of the latter curve up at the front, not down d sincan , e thi s alsi s oe thre th tru f eo e Shetland plough e Nationath n i s l Museum, it may be a feature not much older than 1800. The downward-curving beam, possibly associated with a form of yoking involving a long draught-rope, is likely to have been the earlier form. Four of the Orkney ploughs have coulters fixed in the rearpiece in a mortise cut at an angle of about 30° to the horizontal (Pis. XLV, 1-2, XLVI), so that the blades mee lane th t tthi da s angle. This- placin un coultere th e f th g o 'grip o n t so n ei ploughed land', in conjunction with their considerable breadth, makes them act

as incipient mould-boards1 , so that the ploughs are fully capable of carrying out even a task such as ridging potatoes (PI. XLVII, 2). Whethe t thino s r arrangemenro Orkne n coultei e d th f ol uncertainto s ys i ri t bu , dimensione th coulterse th f so , very broa relatiodn i theino t r length witd ,an hshor a t tang strongle ,ar y reminiscen coulterf to s from Irish crannogs whose contents showed Viking influence.2 The Orkney coulters are c. 15 in. long by 41 in. to 4! wide, the froin.e 7 tan m;o on t gBallinderr6 y Cranno . 4wit1y s ^9in b ghj-in.wa a tangd an , one from Lagore was 17 by 4^ in. with a 7-in. tang. The shares of the Orkney ploughs (fig. 12) are small, and amount to little more than metal shoes ove e conjointh r te plough-head endth f o s d ground-wrestan s s (PI. XLV . Thei,3) r pointed oval for reminiscenms i sharee th f possiblf to so y Viking date from Ireland and Scotland to which reference has already been made. The implication is that this Orkney group of single-stilted ploughs, with their angled coulters, pointed oval shares mould-strokersd an , , preserves featuref so likele b o yt some antiquity, and it may be that the sheer weight of numbers of single-stilted ploughs at work in Orkney inhibited change and the development of individual features. To this latter suggestion, however, there is one exception. Apparently towards e nineteentth f o d hen centurye th a typ, f apparentlo e y very local distribution appeare Orkneyn di s chieIt . f distinguishin r ground-wreso gy featursk s it s i en i t which three upright wooden peg sete coultes sar It . mortises ri d vertically inte oth beam. It was first illustrated photographically by Firth in 1920, and again in Marwick's booklet in 1936 as a frontispiece to a lecture first delivered in 1903. A rough sketc mads Johhwa y eb nJohnsto. Firt W copied . hA an y 1915n di b * (fig. 11 evidence: 6)The . , therefore, belongs entirel twentietthe to y h centuryand , nothing has come to light to support Marwick's statement that 'this kind of plough was in general use in Orkney about one hundred and twenty years ago'.4 Indeed, the most likely solution to the problem of its origin is that it was a local adaptation of the older type by a late nineteenth-century joiner of an ingenious turn of mind who invented the upright pegs to give an improved harrowing action, and the savir soam and dotmel device at the forepart of the beam to prevent damage to the draught pin. Shirreff , Agric.J. , Orkney, London (1814). 52 , Duignan . cit.op , , 133M. , , 136. indebtem a r Eva 1I M no dt Macgillivray, Public Library , Kirkwall drawinr fo , attentioy gm 2 thio nt s illustratio3 n amongst A. W. Johnston's papers. 4 Marwick, . G.cit.. op ,2 , 6 29 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 Firth's term, air ski, for the outermost upright peg, shows that Marwick's term ivver corruptioa sk s i wele th lf nauthenticateo d ear(th] sky, tendd an confiro st m that this plough was a novelty to whose parts some of the names for the older plough had been transferred. There is also in Tankerness House the rearpiece and back part of the beam of a plough clearly similar in construction to those from Shetland (fig. 11: 5). The fact tha t standti s alone amongs Orknee th t y plough suggesy sma broughs t thawa t i tt a t

FIG. 12. The shares of Orkney ploughs: i.As in fig. 11:4, showing the mercal pin; 2. As in fig. 11:3. 3. As in PI. XLV, 3 some date from Shetland, but at any rate it forms the third in the Orkney range of types. (iii) Caithness. No single-stilted ploughs survive from Caithness, nor are there any illustrations, and the documentary evidence is not entirely clear. The Caithness type resembled the main Orkney group with a coulter set into the rearpiece (Table II) t therhavy bu ma ee been difference e mould-board fore th f th mo n i s r JohSi .n Sinclair calle'thrapplo e th wh ,t di e plough' 'twd , saiha o t di moul d boardst a e on , each side,' which suggests Payns a , s said reversibla eha s , thawa t i t e (one-way)

plough f thiI puzzlin.s i s t weri 1 , eso g tha Johnr Si t , himsel Caithnesfa s proprietor, moro s y e sa specifically t no d di . Furthermore s statemenhi , t supporteno s i t y db Henderson's very full description of the 'thraple plough' as follows: 1 Sinclair cit.. op , 203-4, ,J. . EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 2Q7 beae mors Th mwa e bent nearld an ,same yth e length with thamodera f o t n plough, witha head or sole, key, land and mould-boards, all of wood; the mould-board having its convex side outwards breao ribbedd t moulde s an ,furroe a kth th o s ,s wa , d onlpassestilte ha yit on f t ,i ;dof projecting from the centre of the head or sole, an iron coulter and sock, with or without a feather, lane grasss asth dwa r stonyyo woodeo , beae wittw th y mf hpieca b o n wood f eo en de fixeth n o d pegs, which served as a muzzle, and a band made of birch twigs, or thongs of raw leather, embraced the notch of the muzzles, and an iron hook in the centre of the amble (yoke), by which the plough was pulled along.1 Logan also referre mould-boare th o dt 'ribbes da r furroweddo orden i , breao t r k land',e likels borrowine i th b d o yt 2an g from Henderson. The situation, therefore, seems to be that Sir John made a mistake in observation reportingn i r o thad Caithnese an ,th t s sam e plougth ed typhha convef er o o y xsk ground-wrest, wit hpaia r of'ribs mould-strokersr o ' Orknee th s ,a y plough t woulI . d then fall into the same group as the Orkney plough. If, however, Sir John was right, allowance mus mad e Caithnesa b t r efo s group wit hspeciaa l typ mould-boardf eo . (iv) Outer Isles. The single-stilted plough or crann-nan-gad of the Outer Isles is known in descriptions from the second half of the eighteenth century (Table II), and the earliest illustration dates from 1895 (Table IV). This shows a team consisting of a heifer and a woman, and a ploughman standing sideways on at the left of the plough, pressing down on the short single stilt (fig. 13:4). The mould-board is a flat, wooden boar share dfronthonge a th fixe th y featheres e d i b t da an , verd dan y broad lonA . g coulter wit hdowncurvea mortises i p dti d intrearpiecee oth e Th . most striking featur share th s pei downwards curvatur forepare beamth e f th e o f o t. The muzzle, indeed, is running on the ground, and the point of attachment of the trace bees bact sha nse k alon beame gth shorA . t cross-ba rbeae fixeth m o littla dt e fronn i f thiy o t s wa point doe t appeano s hav o t rfunctioy ean thin i n s drawing, though it probably has something to do with attaching the traces. e drawin acceptee b Th n gca s reasonabl da y accurate, since t th bearei t ou s evidence of Dwelly and the crann-nan-gad in the National Museum, except that those show trace attachments at two points (figs. 10: 3, and 11:7) instead of one. forepare downcurvee Th th f o t d crann-nan-gade beath f mo continuousln ra n yo r e thigroundfo th s d reasonan , , accordin o Dwellygt s sometimewa , s iron shod underneat preveno ht t wear n rockI . y ground gooa , s thidwa s arrangemenr fo t keepin plouge gth h steady helpinr fo , controo gt r allowin depthe fo th l d e an ,gth share to be readily lifted over earthfast rocks or outcrops by simply raising the stilt. It served the same purpose as a foot or wheel and is a device found in other parts of the world.3 Downward curvature of the beam has already been shown to be present earle th yn i Orkne Shetland yan d ploughs, thoug suco t extenn t ha hno ts thaha t i t given rise to any special development in the trace attachments. Neither is it likely that the forepart of the beam ran continuously on the ground, though when turning at the end of a rig, the ploughman could raise the stilt on to his shoulder and let the beam run along the ground.4 The older type, however, does have shallow downward curvature possibld an , crann-nan-gade yth exaggerate fore regionaa dth s m a l response 1 Henderson, J., op. cit., 56-57. 2 Logan, J., op. cit., 89. 3 Examples are illustrated in Leser, P., op. cit. 4 Marwick, G., op. cit., 7. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 to a particularly rocky environment. The problem is complicated by a print dated c. 1800 showin ga ploughin g scen leven o e l groune outskirtth n o df Glasgo o s w (PI. L). Here plouge th , beins hi g horse o drawtw linn sy i n b e ahead foremose th , t driven by a man with a lash. It has two stilts and appears to have a rectangular frame forepare beae Th .th mf o t curves down trace sharplth ed attachmenyan s i t beamvere bacr th yfa n ko . Clearly thimongrela s si crosa , s betwee nrectangulara - framed plough and a crann-nan-gad. There is no other record of it, and whether it wa commosa uncommor no n t implknown y typno ma s ey i t I tha .crann-nan-gad e tth was possibly more widespread tha recordes nit d distributio Outee th n i r Isles would abls sugges influenco wa et t i f ti fore , (fig th eLanarkshirf m8) o . e ploughs. Alter- natively, the influence may have been the other way round, and the crann-nan-gad may have borrowed the sharply curved beam from two-stilted ploughs, and therefore from the S. rather than from the N. The curved beam occurs, for instance, on representations of ploughs in fourteenth-century manuscripts in England. The stages between are lacking at present, and the line of development of the for1 m in Scotland must remai reale th speculatiomf n o i n till further evidence come lighto st . crann-nan-gade Th resembles other single-stilted ploughs onllimitea o yt d extent. s beamIt , metho tracf do e attachment mould-board an , l differental e witds ar A h. Orkne d Caithnesyan s ploughs coultes it , mortises i r d intrearpiecee oth e th t bu , mortic straighcoultes e i th d lon s narrowri d tan gan , wit hdown-curveda , beak-like point e shar plough-heaTh e .socketes e i th o t n do r meirgeal,do whic mortises hi d into the rearpiece in the usual way, but it is a very broad, feathered share of a kind suitabl parinr efo g shallow soils covered with gras heath.r so difference Th 2 e between the crann-nan-gad on the one hand, and the Shetland/Orkney/Caithness ploughs on othere th indeee ar , d considerable enoug suggeso ht t that different origins muse b t sought for it, and research into what Ireland had in the way of single-stilted ploughs, for example, could be helpful. ) Control(5 Ploughingd an Efficiency (i) Depth. Control of depth on all single stilted ploughs was exercised by the ploughman alone, or in collaboration with an assistant. The ploughman walked on the left side of the plough, either leaning his weight on the rearpiece, or facing forward, holding the stilt firm against his thigh, which was protected by a sheep skin.3 He carried a pattle or plough-staff to clean the plough, to heave at the animals occasionally, and, in Orkney, to act as a second stilt when more depth was required. Shirreff's diagram show plough-hea e staplbacsa e th th f kt o e a d 'for placind en e gth pattle-tree oth f e into orden i , mako t r plouge eth h kee grounde pth deepero g r o , , by laying on more pressure'.4 This agrees with late eighteenth-century accounts from the parishe Orphisof Shapinsayand r OrkneThe . y plough-staff had, thereforeto , be a pointed stick, lacking the little spade-shaped head that was common elsewhere (fig. 10 . 14): i,No . Depth control could als exercisee ob pressury db beae th mn eo 1 Steensberg Arch.,a , Ad A. n vi , n (1936), 270-1; Jope M.. cit.. E , op ,. , n90 , 2 Jirlow and Whitaker, op. cit., state erroneously that the crann-nan gadd in the National Museum has lost its sock, and that it has never had a coulter. Both are present, however. 3 Logan , cit.. . J.op ,89 , 4 Shirreff, cit.. J.,op , 51-52. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 299

FIG. 13:1 earliese Th . t illustratio Orknen a f no y single-stilted plough wit hthree-horsa e team, c. 1770, o nplaa Williay nb m Aberdeen courtesy B . .Macgillivray E f yo , Librarian, Kirkwall

FIG 13:2 ShetlanA . d plough draw fouy nb r oxen. Fro . mHibbertS , Descr. Shetland Islands, Edinburgh (1882), PI. VI, fig. 20

FIG. 13:3. The earliest illustration of a Shetland single-stilted plough, 1793 Stat.d . FroOl e mth Ace., v, frontispiece

FIG. 13:4e earliesTh . t illustratio e crann-nan-gaddth f o n from Scottish Home Industries, Dingwall (1898), i 3 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , 1963-64 assistantn a y b wedginy ,b plough-heae gth d abov belor eo tongus w mortice it th n ei e rearpiece,e th haviny n b i d gbeaa an 1 m wit hdownwara d curving forepart that could serve as a foot. In the Shetland plough, the slenderness and pliability of the forepar beame th f o t, which yielded under pressure, also seem havo st e bee nfactoa r

in depth control. (ii) Width. Control of the furrow-width could be exercised, as in Lewis, 2 by wedging one side or the other of the tongue of the plough-head mortice. It was also influence driver'e th y db s abilit makyo t teas ehi m pull steady whert bu ,coulte e eth r was angle teao dt r intlane o th t dmusi t have been difficul achievo t t n evea e n furrow width. (iii) Efficiency. Althoug plouge hth ligh s hwa t hande enougon n ,i pico h t p ku t apparentli t eas no pullo yt s .y wa Accordin writere on o gt , 'the structure th f eo Orkney plow requires to have the beam very long, and a very long rope fixed to the muzzle of it, all which throwing the horses at a great distance from it, renders the draught heav toilsomed yan indeed an , d this wit shape hmethoth d ean placinf do g the irons, makes this smalhorsee ..e th hars heavies e .a r on worl o th t sdfo s ka t Scots plow'.3 writee alse th H o Shapinsan d saidro di s Ole a , th d Statisticaln yi Account, thae th t mould-strokers simply shifte furroe dth w slice fro places mit , often leavin same gth e side uppermost, and Hogg thought that ea more improper method of tillage cannot wel conceivede b l grounmuce s a ,th f h o misseds di , t thawhici f o t ploughes hi s di rather crushe side eon thao horsede t th nobligee f o turnesar o o dtw t d s a over d an , go constantly on the tilled land, it is by these means rendered full as firm as before ploughed'.s wa t i Extra hands frequently followed with spade leveo st furrowe th l s and brea4 k the clods. Mos thesf to e comments were mad outsidy eb e observers mattetrute e th Th f .h o r is thaploughe th t s were well adapte kine . worth f The do r do dfo ko y t thed yha were not suitable for stiff or stony ground, though the Caithness version had a pair of shares, one of which was unfeathered for use in such soils, like the share of the old 5 Scotch plough. In the Northern Isles, however, they were mainly used on lighter or previously tilled soils, and since no ploughing was undertaken before spring, the harrowing actiomould-strokere th f no twir so n mould-boards helpe e breao dt th p ku eart producd han preciselgooer a fo ds tilthwa y t I thi. s reason that they remained lono s Orknen ge i us n i y alongsid two-stiltee eth d plough givinr fo , lase thref gth o t e ploughings before a bere crop. As Table II shows, they ploughed to a depth of 3 to 4 in., and could deal with a quarter of an acre in a day, and 15 to 20 acres in a season. Although this picturesque grou implementf po l intent al purposed o t san d sha s become redundant by the first half of the nineteenth century, it was not until the twentieth century that they finally died out. Mor photographes e wa tha e non n di use in Orkney in the 18905 (Pis. XLVI, XLVII) and at least one was still working in 1903. John Firth, writin 1920gn i , sai rememberee dh beino dtw g mad Finstownn ei , 6

1 O.S.A., vii (1793), 585-6; Hogg, J., op. cit., 70. 2 Hogg, J., op. cit., 70. 8 Low, G., op. cit., 56. 4 Hogg, J., op. cit., 70. 6 Henderson, J., op. cit., 56-57. 6 Marwick, G., op. cit., 2, TABLE IV SURVIVING SINGLE-STILTED PLOUGHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Placeof Illustrations Otherof Origin Where Preserved Previous Illustrations Ploughs (published]

SHETLAND i. Dunrossness N.M.A.S. P.S.A.S., xii (1877), 264; 1877 A. Mitchell, Past in the Present, Edinburgh . (1880)G ; 95 , Goudie, Celtic and Scand. Antiqs. of Shetland, Edinburgh and London (1904), 291; N.M.A.S. Short Guide to Scottish Antiqs., Edinburgh (1962) ; Arch.J.,43 , civ (1947), PL VI 2. From Lerwick N.M.A.S. Sc. Studies, i (1957), 77 Collection 1882 3. Whalsey 1936 N.M.A.S. Sc. Studies, I (1957), 77 4. O.S.A, v(i793), inse frontispieco t t e 5. Hibbert, 1822, fig. 20

ORKNEY i Stromness Museum 2-4 Tankerness House, Kirkwall 5 Glasgow Museum & Art Gallery 6 N.M.A.S. Sc. Studies, i (1957), 80 7. Wm. Aberdeen's plan, 1 770 in Proc. Ork. Ant. Soc. II I 2 ( 9 3-4)) facing 52. . ShirrefJ . 8 f Agric. Orkney, London (1814), facing 51 . MarwicG . 9 d kOl Roman Plough, Kirkwall (1936), 1 Frontispiece 10 . FirtJ . h Reminisc. Orkney Parish, Stromness (1920), fig. 2 on PL facing 1 06

OUTER ISLES i . Islay N.M.A.S. Sc. Studies, i (1957)7 7 , 2. Ealadhna Duthshasach na H-Alba, Scottish Home Industries, Dingwall (1895), . Dwelly3 , s.v. Crann- gaddnan 302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 d beeOrkneha nd thae useyan on t d withi preceding'fifte nth y year Thomay b s s Cursiter on his farm at Thickbigging. In Shetland, Sir Arthur Mitchell saw one ploughing at Colinsbroch, Dunrossness, in I864.1 In Caithness, they were seen in the parish of Wick in iS-^i though the establishment of a factory in Thurso in the 2 late nineteenth centur makinr yfo g cart ploughd san deald sha t single-stilted ploughs their quietus in most parts of Caithness. In Lewis, they are said to have been still working shortly before Barva e 190th n 0i s district. III. SPADE, CAS CHROM, AND RISTLE (i) Spade evidence Th earlr efo y spade cultivatio Westere th n i n Island Highlandd san s is both specifi inferentiald can mid-sixteente th n I . h century, Monro mentioned four areas where the spade was in use: Taransay, where all the townships cultivated their land wit , excephors e hmucit s a on r es h a fo tploug h would till (probably about 12 acres, on the Orkney analogy), and had an abundance of bere; Harris, which had 'tways mair of delvit nor of teillit land in it'; Berneray Beg, which produced yearly 'mair nor 200 bollis beir with delving only'; and Rona, where 'abundand of corn growis ... be delving'. At the end of the same century there is a reference to corn 3 land delved wit e h1690 th spade t Kilda,n 5S i Martin d i s an n specified spade- cultivation in Bernera, Nort4 h Uist (though ploughing was also common there), Isle Altig.f th eSkye o inferentiae d Th an 5, l evidenc bases ei cron do p yieldse Th . high seed/yield ratio shown in Table V is undoubtedly the result of the almost horti- cultural intensity of cultivation made possible by the spade (or by the cas chrom) on oat or bere land. The average yields from plough cultivation were very much less othen i r part Scotlandf so seventeenth-centurn I . y Galloway, bere returned 1:4-5, whic describes hwa s poor.da Mackintos f Borluho mn 172i 9 gav e Scottiseth h

average as i: 46 for bere and i: 3 for oats.7 This corresponds to the average for the medieval period in Western Europe, which was about 1:3-5 for barley and i: 3 for oats.8 Even if these averages were calculated after the deduction of tithes, it is still apparent that spade cultivation gave returns that were three or more times greater than those resulting from plough cultivation. It will be seen that the high yields are much more often of barley or bere than of oats. Bere required a fine tilth, produced in Lowland Scotland by three or more ploughings, so that spade cultivation suited it. The available evidence suggests that . oatW s e werinth e generally cultivate plouge sande th th y n ydhb o macharsd an , spade berth lazy-beds n y et i possibleb no s i ascertaio t et I . relative nth e amounts grown t sinc terme bu , eth s 'bere 'cornd sometimean e ' ar ' opposition i t sse eaco nt h earle otheth yn ri sources , suggesting tha lattee th t r indicates t doeoati s Scotn sa si s dialectal speech at the present day, then the frequent references to 'corn' crops in 1 Mitchell, A., The Past in the Present, Edinburgh (1880), 94. M.S.A., xv (1845), 148. Munro, R., op. cit., 80, 81, 86, 87-88.

41 Anon. Descr. of the Isles of Scot. (c. 1577-95), i" Skene, W. F.3 , Celtic Scot., in, Edinburgh (1880), 431. 6 Martin, M., Descr. W. Islands of Scot., London (1703), 43, 53, 139, 140. 6 Symson, A., Large Description of Galloway, Edinburgh (1823), 73-74. 7 Mackintosh, E. W., Essay on Ways and Means for Inclosing, Edinburgh (1729), 59. 8 Sliche Bathn rva ,, AgrarianBH. . History f Westerno Europe, London (1963), 172. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 3°3 these island indicaty sma greateea r acreag oatf eo s (unde ploughe th r ) tha heref no . The oat crop was required not only for making meal, but also for making the liquors called usquebaugh (whisky), trestarig (thrice distilled), and usquebaugh-baul (four times distilled), valuabl stimulantss ea medicines s rente ,a helpinth r .y fo d pa go ,an t 1 Lazy-beds Case th StatisticalDhireach.d d an Ol e Th Account d othean r documentary sources refer to cultivation by the cas dhireach or straight spade in Lewis and Harris, e Uiststh , Bernera, Rum, Skye parishee t Kildath S , d f FarAssynan d o s, an r n i t Sutherland. In these areas, the characteristic cultivating technique involved the makin lazy-bedsf go othen I . r area spadf so e cultivation, different type spadef so s d differenan t techniques were found. The lazy-bed technique may have been known in Britain in Romano-British times.2 In Scotland, a form of it is traceable in the Isles back to the sixteenth century, and the Gaelic termfeannagan taomadh (= the poured-out flaying,3 first recorded in Lewifore th m n 16gos,e s i timiy th n i olde s 4i commonlw r thano e nth y used term lazy bed,5 which preserves the obsolete sense of the adjective lazy — 'fallow, untilled', with TABLE V YIELDS

Anonymous Descr. Place Martin . 169c 0 Macdanald 181 1 Implement '• 1577-95

Bernera Barley 1 120-30; Spade one grain could giv , 10e7 , 12, d 14an ears Bernera Barley 1 125° Caschrom Skye (i) Corchattachan Barley i :35; one grain could giv eare5 s (marie used) (2) Near Kilmartin Oats 1 120-30 Spade (afte year7 r s fallow) (3) Near Skerybreck Barley 1:100 Isl Altif eo g Barley, i grain could give 5 ears Lewis Bere 1:160 2 , d 18an , Spade Eigg Oats i :io-i2 Harris Barley, i grain could give 5 ears South Uist idem

1 Martin, M., op. cit., 3. * Clarke, J. G. D., op. cit., 147, PI. XIV. Crawford, I., in Sc. Studies, vi (1962), 244. * Martin, M., op. cit., 3. 86 First recorded in R. Maxwell, Select Transactions of the Society of Improvers, Edinburgh (1743), 159. e Macdonald, J., Agric. Hebrides, Edinburgh (1811), 154. 4 30 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963^64 referenc undisturbee th o t e d original ground surface belomide bedth e wth -n I . sixteenth century, Monro, talkin Lewisf go , said that: 'Al peitmoslans li a se e th t da coist, and the place quhair he wynis his peittis this yeir thair he sawis his beir the next yeir; efter thet he guides it weill with sea ware.'1 The winning (drying) of peats would naturally take place on a raised ridge or peae wherg parth bo tf o te cutting lef d welpiecy a tsha lma et i hig dryd d han an , tha e latee b th t r syste lazy-bedf mo s evolved here fro earlien ma r custo raisinf mo g crops on the high parts left in the peat bogs by fuel-cutting. By the last quarter of the sixteenth century, at any rate, it is clear that cuttings were being deliberately mad leavo et e well-drained ridges, sinc Anonymouse eth Description say Mulf so l that 'in mony pairtis thairof are great moses, and thay will cast ane fowssie or stank throw the ane pairt of the moss, quhairby the water may easier pass away, and teillis syne leise becumis th remanena e t vertue t fowssie b a th th r mosse y f fa eth sdr o ea f s ,o t castin, and takis it that thai cast out of the fowssie and guidis the teillit earth thair- with, and thairon will grow the best beir in the Isles, of sic quantitie that I think sham writo et e it.'2 These two quotations illustrate three characteristic lazy-bed features - manuring with seaweed diggine th , trenchef go throwinditchesr upcaste e so th th f d o .an ,p gu foro t ms platfora wa m mai e raiseTh d abov water-table eth whicn eo h crops could be grown. A ridge and furrow type of lazy-bed also appeared on soils other than peat, thoug t recordehno d till well throug eighteente hth h century basicalls wa t I . y spade-producee th d equivalen Lowlane th f o t d ridgfros furrowd mwa e an d timan , e to time split down the middle (a process called taomadh a broin3) so that the ridge became the furrow, as in Lowland Scottish practice, though this feature is unlikely to have developed until the breakdown of the run rig system brought an end to the periodic re-allocation of the holdings of individuals in a township. At the present day, such bed othee s th mov r ro abouy e theiwidtn wa t e everow r hon y five years, the crofter turning them so far over each year.4 In Lowland sources, the earliest description of lazy-beds is in relation to the growin potatoesf go . James Donaldson wroto firse wh , eth t treatis lengty an f n eho o Scottish agriculture, recommended the making of 'Beds or Rigs' of about 8 ft. wide, wit hfurroa w betwee . deepft roor thi. w wid2 ft fo ,s ne s y tn 2 eb crop. wa e H 5 describin gd see whaha n e elsewhereh t , possibl Irelandn yi s suggestioHi . n that lazy-bed f thio s s nature shoul usea e mean db s da f reclaiming o s , cleaningd an , draining rough land, old pasture, and wet soils bore fruit, as shown by a number of eighteente th f lateo d rh en writers. centure th y practice B y6th beins ewa g discon- tinueLowlande th n di drils a s l cultivatio potatoef no s develope lans - a dim d dan provemen drainagy b t earle th yen I nineteentwen . on t h century, lazy-beds were bein e gplantin th use r dfo f seedlin go g trees, e Forestr s th thea 7 y yb ystile ar l Commission.

Munro. cit.op , , 86-87R. , . Anonymous Descr., cit.. op , 435.

2 31 Buchanan . cit.- op , , 1544 Frase. r Darling, F., West Highland Survey, Oxford (1955), 224. Donaldson, J., Husbandry Anatomized, Edinburgh (1697), 118-19. 65 e.g. Belsches, R., Agric. Stirling, Edinburgh (1796), 31-32; Robertson, J., Agric. Perth, Perth (1799), 172. 7 Robertson, G., Agric. Kincardine, London (1813), 304. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 305

•s a.

"3 •o

-Hi

1 -ac

•* d 306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 In the Lowlands, therefore, the lazy-bed technique resulted from the introduction of the potato crop and probably had an effective duration of little over half a century. Its use was probably sporadic and unsystematic. In the Highlands and Islands, however, it has been going on for over 500 years as an integral and essential part of agrariae th n give s systemha nparticulaa d an , rassociatee forth o mt d implements of cultivation. For both the 'platform' and the 'ridge and furrow' types of lazy-beds,1 the method of making was the same. The bed or ridge was marked out, about 6 ft. wide, or more according to district, and seaweed spread on it as manure.2 In Harris it was said that 200 large creels of sea-ware were needed to produce a boll of barley, or 12-14 barrels of potatoes.3 Turves were then cut so as to leave a ditch varying from 2 to over 6 ft. wide at each side of the ridge, and were laid grassy side down above the seaweed. Cuttin dons gwa e wit narrow-bladee hth dhireach,s assistann a dca d an t lifted each turf and laid it grassy side down on the ridge.4 This latter point is important because t emphasisei s tha cas-dhireache th t adaptes wa cuttinr dfo g rather than lifting. Like Irise th h spade diggina t t 'i,i s no g implement essentialls i t ;i yridge-makea handr ro - plough, adapte businese th o dt f undercuttin o s turnind gan sod'.e gth Examples

from the W. of Scotland have straigh5 t blades (fig. 14: 1-4), and the shaft usually swells int oheea l abov sockee eth t likIrise eth h lay, thoug noticeablyo s t hno thao s , t leverage can be more readily applied in turning the sod. In the Shetland spade, the blade itself is bent forward at an angle to provide leverage (fig. 14: 5-6). It is

Fio. 15. The blade oa Manf x spade, after B.R.S.Megaw. The width, 3^ in., is close to that of the blade of the cas dhireach

associated with cultivation on the flat, whereas the cas dhireach is intimately associated with raised lazy-beds. The formal development of the latter must have been dictated requiremente th y b lazy-bef so d cultivation. Heron has described the cas dhireach as a 'lugged' spade,6 and another writer has compare 'luggee th Scotland.f o o t . dt S di spadee th 7f o 'Sinc reference eth o t s ei digging spades, the term must indicate the wooden peg or foot-rest by which it was These terms have been adopted for convenience in reference to the fixed lazy-beds, mainly on peat, type th t necessarileo t founno t d wetn bu an do , y 1peaty soil tha treates ti d likLowlane eth d ridg furrowd ean , t betweeextremeo bu tw e broaa nth s si d area where narrow definitio impossibles ni . 2 See Fraser Darling, F., Crofting Agriculture, Edinburgh (1945), PI. II; Evans, E. E., Irish Folk Ways, London (1957), 142, 145. 3 Heron , GeneralR. , View Hebrides, e oth f Edinburgh (1794), 17-18. Buchanan, op. cit., 153-4; O.S.A., x (1794), 352-3. Evans, E. E., op. cit., 128. ' O.S.A., (1794)x , 352-3. 4 Heron, cit.. R.op , 17. 6 6 EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT7 SCOTLANN 30 I S D thrust into the earth, rather than the wing or feather characteristic of a peat-spade blade,Scottishe th s a National Dictionary suggests considerablf o s i t I . e interest thaa t spade of cas dhireach type should thus appear to have been used in the S. of Scotland, wher bladee eth sharer so Romano-Britisf so h date were found .dhireach s Sincca e eth wa tursa f cutting implement likels i t i , y tha'luggee th t d spade' performe dsimilaa r function, and may have been used, like the Manx spade (recorded from the fifteenth century) for making dykes of'feal' or sods (fig. 15). Whether or not the 'foot-spade' frequently referre1 d to in Scottish pre - 1700 sources is the same implement is uncertain, though it was also used for 'casting faill' (turf cutting), and the Forbes Baron Court Book records an act made in 1671 'anent castin of faill eather with foot spadis or flachter spad . . . vithtin meadow gras, hauchis or any pairt of haining of thair severall possessiones'. Any infringement 2 involved a £10 fine for the foot-spade, and a £5 fine for the flauchter-spade (= 'flaying', or turf spade), suggesting that the foot-spade was twice as efficient, or at least capabl doinf eo g more damag greates it y eb r powe penetrationf ro 151n I . 6foota - spade cost rod againss a , peaa t t spad t 7d.ea 3 secone Th d main are intensivf ao e spade cultivatio Shetlands nwa . e Prioth o t r developmen fishine th f o tg industr eighteente th n yi h century Shetlandee th , s wa r dependent more on the plough than the spade (though this is not to say that the peasantry did not cultivate their holdings with the spade as well), but with the sub- division of holdings brought about by the proprietors' requirements in man-power for hand-line fishing, parallelin somo gt e extent what happene Hebridee th n di a s sa result of the kelp industry, it was no longer practical for a single crofter to work a ploug maintaid han teae n th fouf mo r normalle y th require f o d en d e foth r it.y B 4 eighteenth pattercenturw ne f cultivatioe no yth d becomnha e firmly established, but the change was still within memory. The minister of Bressay, Burra and Quarff said, rather sorrowfully, 'the farms are now so small, that the people cannot afford to keep ploughs'.5 In Dunrossness, five to seven people, using spades of a light kind, could turn as much as a Scotch plough with eight to ten oxen. In Northmaven the

number of ploughs had been decreasing for many years,7 and 6 the minister of Unst, makinn i same gth e comment, specifically blame parishee fishing.e th dth n I f so

Soutd an hLerwicd YellMi d , kalmosan cultivatiol spade.e tal th y 1814n b I 9s n,wa 8 nine-tenth countre th estimatef s so ywa undee b spade.e o dt th r picture a 1Th 0s ewa very different one in Orkney, where only the small island of Eday was entirely

cultivate spade.same e trus th Stroma,Th f y e o wa d b islanPentlann e a th n di d

1 2 1

Firth, formin1 g par Caithnessf o t . The lightness of this 'dellin' spade, and its short, broad blade, angled forward

1 Megaw 'Monks,e . BS.R Th ., Spade' injnl. Manx Museum, iv (1939), 165-7, PI- '74- 2 Misc. Sc. Hist. Soc., Edinburgh (1919), in, 284-5. 3 Family of Rose of Kilravock (S.C. 1848), 189. 4 cf. Donaldson, G., Shetland Life, Edinburgh (1958), 35-36, and review by Megaw, B. R. S., in Scottish Historical Review, LXXXIX (1960), 63-65.

* O.S.A., x (1794), 196. • O.S.A., vii (1793), 393. 7 O.S.A., xii (1794), 355. " O.S.A., v (1793), 192.

O.S.A., m (1792), 418 I (1791); , 574. Shirreff . . cit.op 36 , , J. ,

0 1 119 O.S.A., xv (1795), 403. 12 Pennant, T., Tour in Scotland 1769, Chester (1771), 154. 3o8 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64

FIG. 16. i. A cas dhireach (cf. fig. 14:2); 2. A cas dhireach (cf. fig. 14:1); 3. A Shetland delving spade for leverage, like the blades of many of the Irish spade types, make it quite unlike the Highland cas dhireach (fig. 16: 1-2). The earliest illustration of an 'Orkney spade' is by William Aberdeen, about 1770 (fig. 17). The blade is oval in shape, and the back of the shaft swells out to form an angular heel in the same way as the cas dhireach shaftpresene Th Orkney . da t y 'moor-spade r 'pone-spadeo ' turr fo 'f cuttina s gha EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT9 N SCOTLAN30 I S D similarly sturdy heefoot-pegd an l sincd an ,Shetlann ei oldee dth r styl 'dellin'f eo - spade d roundeha ' d corner e thab sty Aberdeen'(figma t .i 14, 6) : s illustration represent earlien a s r for f delvinmo g spade. Accordin Aberdeen'o gt s manuscript composes notewa t i , 'f ado piec ironf eo , abou inche9 t s long mad. . . , e thid nan five inches broad at one end, and at the other a square socket into which is fixed

FIG. n 17OrkneA . y spade, after Aber- deen . 1770c , courtesy B . .Mac E f yo - gillivray, Librarian, Kirkwall crookea abovn ru do et piec t thremado s woodno f es o es i e a inche t I . s beloe wth surface.' There is no doubt about the exact function of the spade in the next illustration (fig. 18), in 1814, for it is the same as the Shetland delving-spade of the present day. Just as it differs from the cas dhireach in shape and size, so does it differ in its method of use. It is, characteristically, an implement of team cultivation. In Shetland team delving continued well into the present century. The members of the team, nor- mally three or four in number (PI. XLVIII, i), sometimes up to five or six1, stood sid sidey eb , keeping thei . apartr in spade thrusd 8 an ,o t ts6 pressinthey b mn i g with their feet on the projecting heel till the metal of the blades was almost hidden. Then, all together, they loosened a long sod or 'peat', lifted it a fraction, and turned it right over . widthree-ma1o t A 2in . lon. y 8 e b ft y g2 b o t n p teau d mso coula t dcu 'fore-spade' e pace th th the. s deep d et lefa delvee e in yse ha th t6 Th .d n o t ro an , 4 worked from right to left along a furrow or 'geng'.2 Most of the fields or rigs are on 1 O.S.A., vn (1793), 393. 2 Jamieson , LettersP. , from Shetland, Lerwick (1949), 193-5. 310 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 teae th slopa m d alwayean s startebottoe th worket d da m an d uphill. resule Th 1 t was that as each sod was turned over into the trench left by the one removed from immediately below it, the cultivated surface gradually moved downhill, and since the first furrow cut by the team was usually thrown up on undug land, it formed a little bank, against which the earth accumulated. According to the minister of Northmavine 'at the bottom of every plot of ground or ridge, the earth, and always the best, has accumulated to a considerable depth'.2 Jamieson described how earth was wheele barrown di carrier sbareo e basket n bace i th th p o drku t n partso s each

FIG. 18 A delving spade of the Northern Isles, after Shirreff, 1814 e commentedh year d an , n resignei , d fashion, that 'this seeme o makt d e little difference'. Suc ha metho f cultivatiodo producd n di coul d dan e squaris r rectangulaho r fields of irregular lynchetted appearance (PI. XLVIII, 2) on slopes. It has often been assumed by archaeologists that the 'Celtic' fields of Southern England and of Jutland3 must have been formed by the action of a plough, but the Shetland practice as described shows tha spade tth equalls ei y capabl buildinf eo lynchetp gu formind san g similar fields. Indeed, it is remarkable how similar the furrow produced by a delving team is in appearance to that produced by a plough. Teamwork, in fact, make spade sth e function almost exactl plouga s ya h (PI. XLVIII, i)t woulI . e db ras assumo ht e from this thae 'Celticth t ' fields were mad a resul s ea f spade o t - cultivation, but in view of the known early occurrence of spades in Bronze Age Britain possibilita s i t i , y that mus t leasa t borne b t mindn ei . Delving in teams was not restricted to Shetland, though in the Highlands, records of it are scanty. Teams of three were working in the 19405 at Smearisary in Moidart,4 Frased an r Darlin tead ol fourgf m o e refer th , whicho t s saide h , , could tur nthira d acrn oa f dayea f vero , y high quality. e mosTh 5t southerly known occurrencf eo team-delvin Luse Arrochad th san n i s gi r are Dunbartonshirf ao late th e n eightei - 1 N.S.A., (1845)v x , 77-78. 2 N.S.A., (1845)v x . 3 For diagrammatic representations see Bowen, H. C., op. cit., 25. 4 Whitaker Studies,. ,Sc I.n ,i in (1959), 176, footnote; O'Malley, R., One Horse Farm, London (1948). 22 , 5 Fraser Darling , WestF. , Highland Survey, Oxford (1955), 224. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 31 I eenth century. Here ,peopl n eighte r o te would work together, moving backwards uphill, and turning over a furrow 18 or 20 ft. long by 8 or 10 in. broad by 9 or 10 in. deep in one movement. The proportions are noticeably similar to those of a good- sized plough furrow.1 Ther indicatioo n s ei relation i n aree e g herth th adu f o net o

Fio. :g The delving spade of Dunbartonshire, after Ure, 1793 area ploughed, but in Ardnamurchan and Sunart in Argyll, as late as 1837, acres of arable were dug and 1504 ploughed on the estate. The spade used in Luss and Arrochar wa2 s illustrated by Ure3 (fig. 19), and is unlike both the cas dhireach and the Shetland spade. It has a one piece blade and shaft, with the blade set asymmetrically so that the top of one side of the blade acts a foot-restsa lowee Th . bladre halth shof s efi o d with iron Arrann I . similaa , r type was used. It was 'an angular piece of wood, shod with three or four inches of iron points it havin d t a an , glona g handl righs it n te o side , dressed fro same mth e piece woodf o e anglTh . e projected fro handlee mth , toward lefte sth , serve pressinr sfo g t dowi ngooe b sais wit stonn foot.'e do i dt wa th h t yI 4 ground d sometimean , s served in place of a hand-hoe for planting, cleaning and digging potatoes. This was 1 Ure , Agric.,D. Dumbarton, London (1794), 39-4.0. Calculated from the original estate plans in the Scottish Record Office. Bald's M.S. map of 1806 maps2 both regions, distinguishing area spadf s o ploug d ean h cultivation. Ure, op. cit., 39; also in Gomme, G. L., The Village Community, London (1890), 279. 43 Headrick , View,J. of Arran, Edinburgh (1807), 316-17. 312 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 evidentl ysurvivaa whatf o l judgo t , manuscripy eb t illustrations commoa s wa , n describee medievaon e a 'foot-spade th wels y da e lb ma l type d sixteenthn an i , ' - seventeenth century Scottish sources. Imported iron spades were coming in from southern markets in the first half of the eighteenth century, though at first only on the lands of improving lairds like Grant of Monymusk, who was getting 'steel spads' and 'shod shovels' from Leith in I735- Caithnessn I 1 , about 1788 shovelr fi , s were imported from Norway along with fir plank dead sexchangan n i l cargoer efo oatmealf so e countryfolTh . k boughe th t shovel eachd the6 d t 4so a d t ha ,m shod with iron 'thed an , y then serve purpose dth e presenofthe t iron spad muceat h less expense the;but yhand werso effectuaeynot or l eighteente th f o farm-work'. n i d hen centurye th y B 2t appear i , s fro scatteree mth d references that iron spades of the conventional present-day variety were known and use mosn di t part Scotlandf so . They failer havfa ous o o dt Shetlane s th t d spade completely e cosTh .dhireach Norte th f ho Western Island Highlandsd san e th d an , asymmetrical spade of Dunbarton and Bute, were displaced by them in the course of the nineteenth century. (2) Cas Chrom The first recorded use of the term 'crooked spade' was supplied by Martin, in 1698, with reference to St Kilda where 'they use no Plough but a kind of crooked Spade cultivatinr fo ' g smala bere d lan , quantit oatsf yo lesA .s orthodot i f o e xus involve Rodericke dt on Kildan S Joht claimeo e S e th sene y n wh th ,b sb o t to dt Baptist witrevelationw hne discoveriesd san d 'commandean , d that every Family should Slay a Sheep upon the Threshold of their Doors, but a Knife must not so much as touch it, he would have them only make use of their Crooked Spades for their Instruments to kill them with'. This, said Martin, pointing the obvious, was most improper, since the edge was almost half an inch thick.3

chroms ca A froFIG . m20 . Strome Ferry Table Se . . eVI The foot-peg is missing

1 Hamilton, H. (ed.), An Aberdeenshire Estate 1735-50 (Third Spalding Club) (1946), 25. 2 Henderson, J., Agric. Caithness, London (1812), 66. 3 Martin, M., Voyage to St Kilda, London (1698), 28, 140. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 313 , thiface it f sth e o woul n O cleada seee b r mo enougt h chrom, s referencca e th o et which in the eighteenth-century literature is commonly translated into English as 'crookede th ' earlies spadehi n I r. book, however, Martin 'fooe spokth tf eo spade ' t Kilda.sixteente S th n i n I h centur t KildanS e yth s delved their corn land with 1

spades.2 In 1765 the spade was again referred to as the cultivating implement of the island. 3 In the nineteenth century, the cas chrom was referred to in St Kilda by its Gaelic firs e namth tr time.efo 4 Setting aside Martin store th , y would appeae b o t r that spade-cultivatio t Kildrule S th n e i as tilnwa l about 1830, when resula s a f , o t Reve th . Neil Mackenzie's reforming zeasettlemente th l s fore werth m en i lait dou of a linear village, with fields above and below the houses in long strips on which the cas chrom could have been effectively used. If this is correct, Martin's statement explainee b o t s possibls i dha t awayi d e an ,tha 'y ab t kin f crookedo d spadee h ' meant the cas dhireach, which, as described earlier, has a form broadly resembling the Irish lay, wit hswellina bace heee th kt th a lf tha go t might justif beins yit g called tere th m f o 'crooked''foo e us t s spadeHi . ' whic seventeenth-centurn hi y Scotland referre a delvin o t d g spade, would then caus problemo en e earliesTh . t definite evidence for the cas chrom, therefore, must still be held to date from the eighteenth century, since Martin's remarks can be interpreted in two ways. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sources show that in its distribution, the cas chrom s confine e rockwa th . Highland o yt d NW district e d Islandsth an sf o s t I . occurred in Lewis (Lochs, Uig, Barvas, Stornoway), Harris, Bernera, North and South Uist, Barra, Skye (Snizort, Kilmuir, Sleat, Strath, Portree, Duirinish, Soay, Bracadale), Raasay, South Rona, Sutherland (Eddrachillis, Assynt, Durness, Tongue), Ross-shire (Glenshiel, Lochcarron, Applecross) Muld an , l (Kilfiniched nan Kilvicheon, Bernera) Jurad an , . Ther exampln a s ei e from Nationa e Islath n yi l Museum. Stewart's referenc eighteenth-centurs it o t e roughee th n i e r ypartus f so parise th Fortingallf ho , Perthshire unsupportes i , othey an ry db evidenc n i t i r efo thi probabls i ared aan y inaccurate. t wasI 5 , therefore, mor r leseo s co-extensive with the cas dhireach (fig. 8). Although it was sometimes used in cultivating the surface of lazy-beds, and in drainin side gth e furrows, t normalli 6 y functione eighr wern o flatx e tme e th Si . n do often seen at work with it together, and one man could turn two to four times as much ground with it in a day as with the spade. Movement was uphill, and in recent 7 practice individuals would work acrosmannee th rige n th si f ,spad o r e delving,8 instea movinf do g steadily backwards alon gsingla e furrow. Just as the form of the cas dhireach seems to have been dictated by the lazy-bed method of cultivation, so does the form of the cas chrom by the rocky terrain in which it characteristically worked. Similar developments are found in other parts of the

Martin, M., W. Islands, London (1703), 286.

21 Anon. Descr., op. cit., 431. Macaulay3 , K., Hist. St Kilda, Dublin (1765), 31-32. 4 Mackenzie EpisodeLifen e A th , n oi B. f th. ,J e Rev. Neil Mackenzie, 1829-1843, privately printed (1911). 5 Stewart, A., A Highland Parish, Glasgow (1928), 166, 177. O.S.A., x (1794), 354; N.S.A., xiv (1845), 154; Macdonald, op. cit., 151-6. 67 O.S.A., vi (1793), 288; Walker, J., Earn. Hist. Hebr., Edinburgh i, (1812), 126-7. indebte. Graym F a . 8I A , o F.S.A.SCOT.dt thir fo ,s information. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1963-64 world 'krokspadee , sucth s ha r 'nabbespadeo ' Norway,f o ' exampled an alse ar so 1 known from Japan.2 In form it was, according to a description from Eddrachillis, 'a crooked piece of wood, the lower end somewhat thick, about z\ ft. in length, pretty straight, and armed at the end with iron, made thin and square to cut the earth. . . . The shaft above the crook is pretty straight, being six feet long, and tapering upwards to the end . . .; just below the crook or angle, which is an obtuse one, there must be a hole, wherei nstrona mus g workman'e gfixede pe th b tr fo , s right foot orden i , puso t r h the instrument into the earth.3' In Gaelic, the foot-peg was called the sgonnan, and the iron blade the ceap or ceaba.* The description here clearly refers to a cas chrom with the head and shaft in one piece, like the 1774 illustration in John Home's Survey ofAssynt (PI. XLIX ,example likd o i)ean ,tw Highlane th n si d Folk Museum at Kingussie, one of which came from under several feet of peat. The majority, however, are composites with a separate head and shaft, and sometimes a third piece at the crook or heel, joined together by iron bands and nails (fig. 20; PL XLIX, 2). foot-pee Th invariabls g i thickness e th heele n i th t f y.se o Some were use womey db n sinc ministee eth Stornowaf o r y though t 'i at disgrac womee se o et n working with Barva n mid-nineteenti e it',d th 5n an si h woman' a centur s goins a t wa gou t y i s tool.6 Presumably the smaller sizes in Table VI were more suitable for female workers tha Eddrachillie nth s size, whic abovs hi e average. TABLE VI CAS CHROM DIMENSIONS Place Source Museum No. Shaft Head

Strome Ferry — N.M.A.S.; MP206 4 ft. it in. i ft. i if in. Not known — N.M.A.S.; MP282 5ft- 2 ft. o£ in. Islay — N.M.A.S.; MPsSg 5 ft. 4!- in. 2 ft. 2 in. Eddrachillis O.S.A., vi (1793) ,288-9 — 6ft. 2 ft. 6 in. Duirinish, Skye N.S.A., xiv (1845), 350 — 5ft- 2 ft.-. 3ft — J. L. Buchanan, Travels — 6ft. . [sicft ]4 (1793), "53 Bernera, Harris J. Macdonald, Agric. — . in ft5 9 - 2 ft. 9 in.- Hebrides (1811), 151-6 2 ft. 10 in. Assynt, J. Henderson, Agric. — 5ft- 2ft. Eddrachillis Sutherland (1812), 178 Durness, Tongue

A worker using a cas chrom moved backwards. He thrust the head into the groun witg righs pressinpe y hhi db e t th foot n go , and, having drive enougr Ta t ni h 1 Erixon, S., Lantbruket under Historisk Tid in Nordisk Kultur, XHI, 85; Valen-Sendstad, F., Norske Land- bruksredskaper, Lillehammer (1964), 32, fig. 2. 2 Kothe, Ethnographischen i , H. — Archdologische Forschungen. (1953)88 , 60 , I ,

O.S.A., vi (1793), 288-9. 43 e.g. N.S.A., xiv (1845), 278-9, 350; McDonald, A., Gaelic Words from South Uist and Eriskay, Dublin (1958), s.v. 6 N.S.A., xiv (1845), 131. 6 N.S.A., xiv (1845), 148. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENT N SCOTLANI S D 315 int earte oth h wit bodys bene hi hraiseirof on e e d o h , clo th e n y sth headed b d part instruments ofhi heele , makinth hinr f o , o dheade e parfulcrumga th us s f a ,o t n i , so doing, turn t ovesi r always toward lefe sth t hand thed an ;n proceed puso st r hfo anothe samre cloth en d i form'. 1 Besides turning over the soil, its form made it a powerful lever, as Johnson noted in Skye in I775,2 capable of clearing stones weighing up to 200 lb.,3 which the ordinary spad e. Thi couldo t s powedno leveragf ro fact n outstandini e , th e,is g characteristic of the cas chrom, and suggests that the implement was developed in rocky districts wher eprima s thiswa e necessity previousls A . y dhireach s noteda ca s e ha th , marked heel clearly intended to increase the leverage (the blade being straight), and t onli y need embryoni n hea angle a n bene shafe a r th b st dth fo o o a et t t t chroms cca producedte ob roughle Th . y similar distributio implemento tw e th f n o Scotlan n si d tends to support the idea of a typological sequence, cas dhireach whence cas chrom,1 brought abou answen i t locao t r l condition particulaa f o s r nature additionn I . , there is a marked similarity between the shares of the two implements. One writer said the cas chrom blade was 'in the shape of a narrow Irish spade, about five inches broad'. e bladTh e might als e 'triangularob , resembling that use r castinfo d g 5 turf'.6 This forpreferres mwa stonn di y ground. f thiI s suggestion abou developmente th tchrom s ca accepteds e i th f o attempn a , t made b daty o et . Sixteenth-centurema it y writers refe spadeo t r s without qualifying tere somth my b e such adjectiv 'crooked's ea hars i believt o dI t . e tha implemenn ta t distinctivs chroms a ca e woulth s e a include e db d unde generie rth c term 'spade'd an , the possibility arise thet no ns d thaexistambiguite di t ti Th . Martin'f yo s statements e 16go indicaty th n ma si e tha procese th t changf so begund eha ; tha spada t e like fig. 16 , resemblin2 : e one-earegth d spad f Counteo y Kerry d trulan , ystraigha t spade, was developing into a spade like fig. 16: i, resembling the Irish loy, and requiring only a little more curvature of the shaft to become a cas chrom. It is significant that lik spadee eth apparentle th , y earliest cas chroms were made fro piece mon e of wood. The rise to fame of the cas chrom in the eighteenth century must then be spreae th f potatoeo t do e a cro du s a ps that woul itseln di f provid a meane f o s subsistence developmene th o t keld e th an , p f industro t y which prevente spende dth - cultivatioe timf th o n eg o in crops,f no 7 implemennecessitatinn a f o e us te gthath t worked faster tha nspadea evolutioe Th .ca e sth f chrom,no arean i s wher groune eth d was too rocky and shallow or too boggy for a horse drawn plough, then appears as a response to the same kind of superimposed economic conditions that gave rise to the development of the delving team in Shetland and elsewhere. In each case, povert r soiyo l condition r economiso c pressure prohibiteanimalsf o e d us e an , dth the people had to carry on their cultivation by hand and by foot. The cas chrom, moving steadily backwards, turned in effect, albeit more slowly, a plough furrow, teaa d delverf mo an preciseld sdi samee yth . Indeed delvine th f i , t g teamno d sha 1 O.S.A., vi (1793), 288-9. 2 Johnson, S., Journey to the Western Islands, Glasgow (1817), 119. 3 Macdonald , . cit.J.,op , 153. 4 Campbell, A., has made a similar suggestion in Folk Liv., vin (1944), 234. 5 Henderson, J., op. cit., 57. 6 Robertson, J., Agric. Inv., London (1808), 102-3. 7 See Handley, J. E., Scottish Farming in the Eighteenth Century, London (1853), 181 ff.

PSAX 316 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE TH F O S , 1963-64 been present in the photograph from Fair Isle (PI. XLVIII, i), it would have been impossible to tell that the furrows had not been made by the plough. (3) The Ristle The ristle plough was an implement used in conjunction with the plough and sometimes the cas chrom. Its function was to cut a slit in the ground so that the plough or cas chrom would not be hindered by tough roots or a strong sward. In design, it ma regardee yb d simpl plouga s ya h coulter mounte s itsely beama db wa n fi t I . drawn along by one or two horses according to the nature of the terrain, and usually

FIG. 21. A ristle from North Uist in the N.M.A.S. (PAA 5) had a single stilt, though a two-stilted version was used in Tiree.1 Since the ristle ploug horsesalono e hus tw migh gs d it ,wit an t hn plouga requir me o he tw requirin g two men and four or even five horses2 as in Coll and Tiree meant a heavy cost in man and animal power that could only be met by small scale farmers as long as they could co-operate with each other under the old joint-farm system. recorde Th s sho wremarkabla y limited distributio s ristlee th wa r t I n(figfo . .8) first hear Nortn i f do hlate Uisth e seventeentn i t ho centurytw y b r o , e drawon y nb horses, facilitating the work of both the plough and the cas chrom.9 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was used in Coll and Tiree, Harris, the Uists and Eriskay.4 It apparently remained in use till about the middle of the nineteenth century, whe nsmala l numbe stils t wora lrwa Soutn ki hexample Uist,th d 5an n e i the National Museum (fig. 21) was used in North Uist after iSso.6 It undoubtedly speeded up the amount of ploughing that could be done with the home-made implements availabl tenantse th o wited t hel s an twelv,ho it t coulpgroun a n te e me d f po tur acrn daya na n ei , pulverisin soi e wels g th a lwits a l h 'two ordinary Hebridian plouge th knows i o t t hi ploughs'.varioud n i ai n a ss partA Europf so e- Scandi - 7 navia Iberiae th , n peninsula on.o s Alpse 8aree d th th f ,an ,ao e GaeliTh c name risteal r cranno ruslaidh s Norsi originn ei , cognate with Nor-

1 O.S.A., x (1794), 412. 2 Smith, J., Agric. Argyll, Edinburgh (1798), 318. Martin , W.M. , Islands, Glasgow (1881). 53 , 48 Walker, J., in Sc. Hist. Rev., xix (1921-2), 43-44, in Trans. Gael Sac. Inv., xxrv, 120-38, and in Econ. Hist. Hebr., Edinburgh (1812), I, 124-5; Heron, R., op. cit., 14, 40. 6 N.S.A., xiv (1845), 191. • Beveridge, E., South Uist, Edinburgh (1911), 314. Macdonald, J., op. cit., 156-7; see also Jirlow and Whitaker, op. cit., 80.

7 8 e.g. Leser, P., op. cit., 171, 182, 302-3; Jirlow and Wahlberg in Skytteanska Samfundets Handlingar, i, 73; Dias, J., in Laos, i, 131; Erixon, S., op. cit., 103. EARLY CULTIVATING IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND 317 wegian ristel, Swedish rist,Norsd Ol e ristell, suggestin directioe gth n from which this implement came to Scotland. Since its characteristic use is before a plough - it may indee regardee db separabla s da more th eel parplougsurprisinal a s f i to t i h- g that no record of its use appears in Shetland, Orkney or Caithness, where cultivation by the plough was intensive. Its distribution as known at present represents a survival in the main oat producing areas of the Western Isles and suggests an association with the rectangular-framed rather than with the single-stilted plough.

SocietyThe indebtedis Councilthe to British for Archaeology for a grant towards the cost of publishing this paper