This is part of a research project into changes in landownership in Orkney.
The landscape we view in Orkney today of fenced fields and stone dykes is one of relatively recent times. For hundreds of years islanders lived in communities built upon a system of farming in rigs.
Runrig in Orkney
Many readers will be aware of the system of runrig that existed across Scotland, strips of cultivated land where crops were grown. In Scotland farmers would take turns in which were considered to be the best rigs to cultivate, sharing out in this way with the intention that no one would ever only have the poorest (or the best) rigs.
The system in Orkney was slightly different. The rigs in Orkney did not change about between different farmers but remained cultivated by the same people generationally.
Today, according to the UK Government’s Local Data Profile for Kirkwall, it has a population of 7,393 – compared to 20,020 for Orkney as a whole. It’s where the council administration, sheriff court, and major shopping areas are.
Up until the end of the 19th century, most people in Orkney lived in Townships – a way of living which had continued for hundreds of years. The Townships were delineated by dykes (high turf walls) beyond which was the Commonty of the settlement.
“within the dykes were all the houses, all the arable lands, and most of the meadows; saving only certain outlying lands called ‘quoys’, cultivated at a later date” – J. Storer Clouston, ‘Orkney Townships’ Scottish Historical Review (1919).
This system had grown up from the earliest farming settlements. Alexander Fenton in ‘The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland’, describes how people would have relied upon each other.
“Townships were close knit communities of people who depended on each other and on the resources of the area for other subsistence. “
The cultivated land was held in rigs, strips of land which over time had become scattered amongst those of their neighbours. This was a natural occurrence as rigs were passed down from family to family and within families. There was a whole vocabulary of Orcadian words to describe the rigs, words now lost when this form of farming changed to the field systems we see around us.
“the number of names descriptive of the shape, quality, or situation of rigs is considerable.” – Fenton.
The rigs varied in size and quality. Many people dug them with only a spade, and it was only the larger ones where a plough – the Orkney plough was used. Next to the house, vegetables would be grown. This area, Toomal Land, was held in perpetuity by the house.
Within the Townland, the grassland might be used jointly, or in some cases shared on a rotational basis between neighbours. As late as 1760 most of the arable/corn lands in Orkney still lay in runrig.
The Commonty.
In the Spring until the harvest was brought in, the animals were put to The Commonty. This was the land beyond the hill dyke and used for grazing. The Commonty was for the use of all the people of the Township. Each Township had its own Commonty for the use of its people. A Township would consist of about 3 to 6 farms, and about 2 or 3 smaller cottages. As families grew, a small cottage might be built for the older mother or father. (There’s nothing new in erecting a ‘granny house.’ )
This system relied on the good maintenance of the hill dyke, which everyone in the Township was to take responsibility for. Each year turfs would be cut and any damage done over the winter repaired. This was so animals did not get out and down into the rigs where the crops were growing.
The great kelp boom resulted in men and women being used by the large landowners to gather and process the seaweed on the shorelines when they should have been engaged in farming. All the jobs they would normally have done in Spring had to wait until after March, but before May (when the kelp season began). This included repairs to the hill dyke.
There was a wide variety of animals put out to The Commonty: pigs, sheep, cows (often tethered), and hundreds of geese. When the hill dyke was left unmaintained, and animals escaped into the corn lands, it was disastrous. This was subsistence farming, and not only did you have to feed your family, your stock, provide seed for next year, but rents were also paid in kind.
There were years of crop failure with widespread starvation.
“Death and widespread suffering were averted by government intervention, and some of the Heritors and Kirk Sessions in importing food. – ” The Changing Cultural Landscape of Orkney (1750 – 1900), Douglas P. Willis.
Disputes occurred with cattle belonging to one neighbour trespassing onto the arable rigs and trampling another’s crops. There were also arguments when people weren’t doing their fair share of repairing the hill dykes. Although sheep had their ears clipped to show who they belonged to, this was also often a cause for disputes as the sheep were left pretty wild on The Commonty.
Life and landscape were inseparable in Orkney before enclosure. When this changed the culture changed too.
“A great zeal for improvement has lately appeared in these islands which may be attended with the best effects; for they enjoy a very temperate climate though in a high northern altitude.” – Agricultural State of Scotland Vol 1, Rev Dr Skene & George Robertson.
From the later half of the 18th century, the rigs and meadows were measured out in plankings. Instead of the irregular shapes which over time had been formed, the plankings cut the rigs and grass grounds into precisely measured allotments. These were shared out between each Heritor, and the land valued. This and the later enclosure of the Commonty was made possible mainly by two Acts of the Scottish Parliament :
- The Runrig Lands Act, 1695, Chapter 36
- Division of Commonties Act, 1695, Chapter 69
In the next article, discover some of the words, and terms which were lost when the land changed forever.
Fiona Grahame