This unit is also known as the "Scottish ploughgate". In English-speaking Lothian, it was simply ploughgate.Barrow, Kingship and Unity, pp. 12–15. It may have measured about ,Barrow, Kingship and Unity, p. 15.
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The main unit of land measurement in Scotland was the davoch (i.e. "vat"), called the arachor in Lennox and also known as the "Scottish ploughgate". In English-speaking Lothian, it was simply ploughgate.Barrow (1981) pp. 12–15.
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Daughs are referred to in the Book of Deer, and were recorded as being in use in the late 18th century in Inverness-shire. In some areas, a quarter of a davoch was a ploughgate, and an eighth an ochdamh.
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Yields were fairly low, often around three times the quantity of seed sown, although they could reach twice that yield on some infields. The main unit of land measurement in Scotland was the davoch (i.e. "vat"), called the arachor in Lennox. This unit is also known as the "Scottish ploughgate".
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'Rambles Round Beith'. Beith : Pilot Press. p. 24 The origin of Farm Towns lies in the common medieval sub-division of land called a ploughgate (104 acres), the extent of land which one plough team of oxen could till in a year. This area was again subdivided into four husbandlands, each of .
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A ploughgate was the Scottish equivalent in the south and east of the country. Even more so than in England, the variable land quality in Scotland led to ploughgates of varying sizes, although the area was notionally understood as 100 Scots acres. Many sources say that four ploughgates made up a daugh, but in other places it would have appeared to have been the equivalent of one daugh exactly. As in the Danelaw, ploughgates were subdivided into oxgangs, again usually by eighths.
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Kirkwood was anciently known as Bloak Cunninghame.Lainshaw, Page 253 Bloak seems to have been a typical 'Farm Town', the origins of which lie in the common medieval sub-division of land called a 'ploughgate' (104 acres), this being the extent of land which one plough team of oxen could till in a year. This area was again subdivided into four plots known as 'husbandlands', each of 26 acres (110,000 m2). A husbandland could sustain and provide two oxen, and eight oxen were need for a plough-team.
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1150 to 1300, warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive. Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands.G. W. S. Barrow, Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000–1306 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), , p. 12. The main unit of land measurement in Scotland was the ploughgate, also known as the davoch and in Lennox as the arachor.
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Oxen, through the Scottish Gaelic word damh or dabh, also provided the root of the land measurement 'daugh'. Skene in Celtic Scotland says: : "in the eastern district there is a uniform system of land denomination consisting of 'dabhachs', 'ploughgates' and 'oxgangs', each 'dabhach' consisting of four 'ploughgates' and each 'ploughgate' containing eight 'oxgangs'. :"As soon as we cross the great chain of mountains [the Grampian Mountains] separating the eastern from the western waters, we find a different system equally uniform. The 'ploughgates' and 'oxgangs' disappear, and in their place we find 'dabhachs' and 'pennylands'.
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In 1172, William II de Haya leased one ploughgate in Pitmilly to St Andrews Cathedral Priory and its hospital for twenty years at an annual rent of half a merk of silver.Carta Willielmi de Haya de terra in Petmulyn. Registrum Prioratus Sancti Andree. p.313. See Bruce 1841 The brief association of the Hays with Pitmilly essentially ended when, shortly after William's death around 1201, Eva and their son, David, after a dispute with the canons of St Andrews Cathedral Priory, quitclaimed the land to the priory, but retained the annual rent of half a merk of silver.
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John Ainslie's Map Retrieved 2013-11-12 Thomson's 1832 map shows a laird's style dwelling of Threepwood and a group of two buildings below, also marked as Threepwood, with a lane running between. In 1828 'Bleachfield' is recorded with two separate buildings, one next to a millpond on the Cadgerford Burn and the other next to the Dusk Water.Thomson's 1828 Map Retrieved 2013-11-13 The three 'Towns' of Threepwood looks to have been the typical 'ferm toun' settlement arrangement such as at Hessilhead, the origin of which lies in the common medieval sub-division of land called a ploughgate (104 acres), the extent of land which one plough team of oxen could till in a year. This area was again subdivided into four husbandlands, each of .
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