Oxgang

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(Redirected from Bovate)

An Oxgang (Scottish Gaelic: Damh-imir, Latin: bovate) is an old Scottish land measurement. It averaged around 20 acres (English), but was based on land fertility and cultivation, and could be as low as 15 English acres.

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'. The portion of land termed a 'dabhach' is here also called a 'tirung' or 'ounceland', and each 'dabhach' contains 20 pennylands."

Oxgangs were also known as bovates, a Latinisation of the name. (Oxen, i.e. "Damh" or "Dabh" also provided the root of the land measurement Daugh)

The name is retained in one of the southern suburbs of Edinburgh, "Oxgangs" and in an area of the town of Kirkintilloch.

[edit] Usage in England

The oxgang was also used in England, originating in the land conquered by the Vikings which became the Danelaw. The area consisted of the amount of land a farmer with one ox could plough in a sowing season when joined to a team of eight. As land was normally ploughed by a team of eight oxen an oxgang was 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 curacate 100-120 acres.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In England, a bovate was a measure of land which could be ploughed in one year by one eighth of a plough team with eight oxen, or in other words the measure of land representing one eighth of a carucate (120 customary acres). The term is used in the Domesday Book for places under the Danelaw. The word is derived from the Latin word bōs, meaning ox. The bovate is equivilent to 15 acres. A peasant with a bovate was known commonly as a bovater, a title that represented his land ownership.