THE KINROSS-SHIRE
CIVIC TRUST
Factsheet 7. March 1994
The Crooked Rigs of Scotlandwell
This background to the so-called "Crooked Rigs", an ancient field system
that overlooks the
village of Scotlandwell, was first published in the Civic Trusts newsletter
in Oct 1993.
While most people now appreciate the historic significance of the site
of the Red Friar's
Hospital and the well that gives the village its name, it is only in
recent times that the
"Crooked Rigs" of Scotlandwell have been revealed as one of Scotland's
most unusual relict
landscapes. Drawing on early maps, manuscripts and evidence provided
by the lie of the
land itself, David Munro has been able to expose a facet of the village
that few people
have recognized.
The field pattern we see today dates back to medieval times when villagers
worked their
arable land under a communal system known as run-rig. Designed to allow
everyone a fair
share of the land and its produce, the unenclosed run-rig fields were
divided into rigs or
narrow strips that were sometimes called "acres". Although everyone
in the village worked
together at ploughing, planting and harvesting, each family was allocated
the produce from
one or more rigs in each of the six fields on the hillside. This method
of organising
arable land was common throughout Scotland prior to the Agricultural
Revolution of the 18th
century and in Kinross-shire it once operated not just in Scotlandwell
but in other
fermtoun settlements such as Kinnesswood, Balgedie, and Dalqueich.
The Birch Harrow
In 1695, as a precursor to agricultural improvement, the Scottish Parliament
passed an act allowing run-rig lands to be divided and reallocated so that
farmers could establish and enclose their own holdings. While the run-rig
system was swept aside in many parts of the country during the 18th century,it
was some time before it started to disappear from the Kinross-shire landscape
where agricultural improvement was a slow and painful process. The run-rig
lands of Dalqueich were divided in the 1780s and in Portmoak parish the
run-rig fields of Kinnesswood were reorganized in a legal process that
began in 1738 and ended in 1799.
In Scotlandwell, a village divided between the Arnot and Kinross estates,
land tenure was a complication but, more significantly, there was no individual
feu-holder prepared to promote the legal process of division. At the end
of the day, although the common grazings were divided in 1822 at the instance
of Thomas Bruce of Arnot, the Agricultural Revolut- ion bypassed Scotlandwell,
leaving the medieval field system unaltered. Still holding onto their narrow
intermixed strips of land, which they eventually enclosed during the 1920s,
the people of Scotlandwell continued to operate a unique type of lowland
crofting system.
The old Scots plough
Some rigs have been amalgamated by purchase, but the landscape as a
whole is essentially a medieval one. The Sandy Loan, that once provided
access to each of the five large fields, cuts deep into the hillside, suggesting
centuries of use. In addition to this, steep-sided "baulks" and rounded
field margins are evidence of generations of ploughing in one direction
using the old Scots plough.
The designation of Conservation Areas is one method of protecting localities
with a character and appearance of special architectural or historic interest.
In arguing the case for a Conservation Area in Scotlandwell, the contribution
of this historic field system to the essential character of the village
should not be forgotten.
Sources:
Kinross-shire Historical Society, plan of the "Village and Lands of
Scotland Well". (c.1820)
W.J.N. Liddall (1903) "An ancient Scottish manor" in the Juridical Review,
Vol 15.
G. Whittington (1970) "The problem of run-rig" in the Scottish Geographical
Magazine, Vol 86, 69-73.
R.A. Dodgshon (1975) "Run-rig and the communal origin of property in
land" in the Juridical Review, Part 3, 189-208. |
