Changes in Scottish Township Organization during the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Abstract

The paper draws attention to the widespread arrangement of modern Scottish farms into small, related groups or pairs. These groups or pairs are usually distinguished by place-name prefixes like East, West, Mid, Nether, Lower, Upper and Meikle or suffixes like Mor(e) or Beg. Such seemingly split farms have always been regarded as the product of runrig divisions carried out during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, various sources show that many examples, possibly the majority, existed before the eighteenth century. Prompted by these signs of their early existence, an attempt was made to establish when particular examples first developed. This was done by comparing rental statements or land charters over a period of time, thus deriving a serial view of the changing pattern of toun or farm names and their total number within individual estates. In a few select cases, it was even possible to locate direct documentary evidence for the early splitting of touns. From this evidence, it was concluded that splitting was an ongoing process throughout the medieval and early modern periods. No single cause is favoured. The desire to remove runrig between two or three heritors, to combat the problems of growing scale or landholding complexity, fragmentation through alienation, or a division between co-heirs could all play a part.