Everything about Oxgang totally explained
An
Oxgang (
Scottish Gaelic:
Damh-imir,
Medieval Latin:
bovata) is an old land measurement formerly used in
Scotland and
England. It averaged around 20 English
acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, and so could be as low as 15.
Skene in
Celtic Scotland says:
» "in the eastern district there's 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'. The portion of land termed a 'dabhach' is here also called a 'tirung' or '
ounceland', and each 'dabhach' contains 20 pennylands."
An oxgang is also known as a
bovate, from
bovata, a
medieval Latinisation of the word, derived from the
Latin, meaning ox, bullock or cow. Oxen, through the
Scottish Gaelic word
Damh or
Dabh, also provided the root of the land measurement '
Daugh.'
In Scotland, 'oxgang' occurs in
Oxgangs, a southern suburb of
Edinburgh, and in
Oxgang, an area of the town of
Kirkintilloch.
Usage in England
In England, the oxgang was a unit typically used in the area conquered by the
Vikings which became the
Danelaw, for example in
Domesday Book, where it's found as a
bovata, or 'bovate.' The oxgang represented the amount of land which could be ploughed using one
ox, in a single annual season. As land was normally ploughed by a team of eight oxen, an oxgang was thus one eighth the size of a ploughland or
carucate. Although these areas were not fixed in size and varied from one village to another, an oxgang averaged 15 acres, and a ploughland or carucate 100-120 acres. However in the rest of England a parallel system was used, from which the Danelaw system of carucates and bovates seen in Domesday Book was derived. There, the
virgate represented land which could be ploughed by a pair of oxen, and so amounted to two oxgangs or bovates, and was a quarter of a
hide, the hide and the carucate being effectively synonymous.
A
peasant occupying or working a bovate might be known as a 'bovater.'
Further Information
Get more info on 'Oxgang'.
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