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Run rig

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Run rig, or runrig, also known as rig-a-rendal, was a system of land tenure practised in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. It was used on open fields for arable farming.

The remains of old runrig strips beside Loch Eynort, Isle of Skye
The remains of old runrig strips beside Loch Eynort, Isle of Skye

Its origins are not clear, but it is possible that the practice was adopted in the late medieval period, supplanting earlier enclosed fields which were associated with a more dispersed pattern of settlement.[1]: 149  It fell into decline mainly over the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century.

The land was divided into towns or townships, comprising an area of cultivable "in-bye" land and a larger area of pasture and rough grazing. The in-bye was divided into strips – rigs – which were periodically reassigned among the tenants of the township so that no individual had continuous use of the best land. This periodical reassignment can be considered a defining feature of run rig. The majority of townships were rented by a tacksman and sublet to the actual farming tenants. Some tacksmen would have leases on several townships.

The detailed working of run rig differed from place to place. The degree of co-operation in these communal farms was one of these aspects. In some instances, where ploughing was carried out by horse gangs, the responsibility for this was shared among the tenants – so providing an obvious communal activity. The Breadalbane estate was an example of this. However, there is no evidence for this sort of organisation on Tiree, where the arable lands were almost entirely ploughed. A further complication was that many parts of the West Highlands used the caschrom to work arable, especially in the Hebrides, so there was no need for a shared plough team.[1]: 142–143 

Two documented methods of working run rig demonstrate the relatively limited level of co-operative working. The first is found in a 1785 survey of Netherlorne on the Breadalbane estate. Here the typical township had eight tenants who would plough all the arable land, then divide it into parts judged to be of equal quality and draw lots, for each crop, as to who would occupy each part. The tenant of each part would then prepare his own section for sowing, broadcast his seed and then finally harvest. The second example is on North Uist, where spade and caschrom working was used. Here the land was divided before any working of the soil – each lot was worked entirely individually by the occupier. Dodgshon discusses the misconception that communal working was the main characteristic of run rig. Instead a key defining feature was the holding of intermixed strips of land on the arable area. His conclusion is that run rig was not an archaic system of management based on communal ownership; rather it was a system that valued private property and employed communal activity only when necessary.[1]: 142–143 

From the mid-18th century the system was steadily supplanted in Scotland as the in-bye was divided into crofts under fixed tenancy,[2] but run rig survived into the 20th century in some parts of the Hebrides.

In Ireland, a similar system was called rundale. The run rig system of tenure should not be confused with the agricultural practice known as rig and furrow, which produced permanent ridges in arable fields. This resulted from the horsedrawn plough being worked in a clockwise direction, with the mould board turning the furrow to the right, thereby creating these ridges ("rigs") in the fields over time. A run rig system of agriculture may or may not produce a rig and furrow landscape, depending on the method of cultivation used.[3]

Discover more about Run rig related topics

Land tenure

Land tenure

In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individuals. It determines who can use land, for how long and under what conditions. Tenure may be based both on official laws and policies, and on informal local customs. In other words, land tenure implies a system according to which land is held by an individual or the actual tiller of the land but this person does not have legal ownership. It determines the holder's rights and responsibilities in connection with their holding. The sovereign monarch, known in England as The Crown, held land in its own right. All land holders are either its tenants or sub-tenants. Tenure signifies a legal relationship between tenant and lord, arranging the duties and rights of tenant and lord in relationship to the land. Over history, many different forms of land tenure, i.e., ways of holding land, have been established.

Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a 96-mile (154-kilometre) border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands.

Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.

List of islands of Scotland

List of islands of Scotland

This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways".

Open-field system

Open-field system

The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acres each, which were divided into many narrow strips of land. The strips or selions were cultivated by peasants, often called tenants or serfs. The holdings of a manor also included woodland and pasture areas for common usage and fields belonging to the lord of the manor and the religious authorities, usually Roman Catholics in medieval Western Europe. The farmers customarily lived in separate houses in a nucleated village with a much larger manor house and church nearby. The open-field system necessitated co-operation among the residents of the manor.

Pasture

Pasture

Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs. Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay for animal fodder. Pasture in a wider sense additionally includes rangelands, other unenclosed pastoral systems, and land types used by wild animals for grazing or browsing.

Tacksman

Tacksman

A tacksman was a landholder of intermediate legal and social status in Scottish Highland society.

Breadalbane, Scotland

Breadalbane, Scotland

Breadalbane, from Scottish Gaelic Bràghaid Albann, is a region of the southern/central Scottish Highlands. It is a mountainous region comprising the watershed of Loch Tay; its boundaries are roughly the West Highland Way in the west, Rannoch Moor in the northwest, Loch Rannoch in the north, the River Tummel in the east, the Highland boundary in the southeast, and Loch Earn and Loch Voil-Loch Doine in the south. The former Breadalbane district was surrounded by the districts of Atholl, Strathearn, Menteith, The Lennox, Argyll and Lochaber. The Breadalbane Hydro-Electric Scheme lies within the region.

Hebrides

Hebrides

The Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.

North Uist

North Uist

North Uist is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

Crofting

Crofting

Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock.

Rundale

Rundale

The rundale system was a form of occupation of land in Ireland, somewhat resembling the English common field system. The land is divided into discontinuous plots, and cultivated and occupied by a number of tenants to whom it is leased jointly. The system was common in Ireland, especially in the western counties. In Scotland, where the system also existed, it was termed run rig.

Source: "Run rig", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, January 13th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_rig.

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References
  1. ^ a b c Dodgshon, Robert A. (1998). From Chiefs to Landlords: Social and Economic Change in the Western Highlands and Islands, c.1493-1820. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1034-0.
  2. ^ "The Runrig System of Land Tenure | Hebridean Connections". www.hebrideanconnections.com.
  3. ^ Williamson, Tom (2002). The Transformation of Rural England: Farming and the Landscape 1700-1870. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-85989-634-4.
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