Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-23T23:04:08.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agrarian and Settlement Characterisation in Post-Medieval Strathbogie, Aberdeenshire, 1600–1760

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2011

COLIN SHEPHERD
COLIN SHEPHERD*
Affiliation:
colin@scottish-heritage.org.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Documentary, cartographic and archaeological sources suggest that agrarian practice in the north east of Scotland from the late sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries was more diverse, dynamic and targeted than often supposed. The evidence suggests that Strathbogie saw extensive agricultural expansion throughout the entire period, especially in areas demonstrating earlier under-utilisation. Real improvement and expansion occurred as a result of developing existing traditional systems of agriculture, which was socially at odds with the later and much vaunted ‘Improvements’. These practices maximised productivity by targeting the production of a range of commodities at their most appropriate ecological zones within the overall landscape of the estate, the Lordship of Huntly. Such a model for production appears to have influenced the settlement strategy within those individual ecological zones. However, an over-emphasis upon grain production may, ultimately, have resulted in unsustainable practices, contrasting with earlier more ecologically-targeted ones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , April 2011 , pp. 1 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberdeen and Northeast Scotland Family History Society. ND. List of Pollable Persons in the Shires of Aberdeen, 1696 (Dyce).Google Scholar
Alexander, D. 1997. ‘Excavation of a Medieval Grain-drying Kiln and earlier Mill Lade at Lhanbryde, Moray’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 127, 677–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, R. C. 1991. ‘The Two English Agricultural Revolutions, 1450–1850’, in Campbell, B. and Overton, M. eds, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp. 236–54.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. 1794. General View of the Agriculture of the County of Aberdeen, (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Archaeology Scotland, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. A., Syme Duncan, J., Lelong, O. and MacGregor, G. 2003. Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project: Easter Carawhin - Excavation Season.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. A. ed. 2005. Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project, Annual Report, 2004–05.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. A., Dalglish, C, McLellan, K. and Swan, D. 2005. Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project: Excavations at Kiltyrie and Tombreck, 2005.Google Scholar
Banks, I. and Atkinson, J. A. 2000. ‘Bragar Townships Project: Developing a Methodology for Locating Hidden Settlement Patterns’, in Tounships to Farmsteads: Rural Settlement Studies in Scotland, England and Wales, BAR 293 (Oxford), 69–76.Google Scholar
Carter, S. P. 1999. ‘The Burgh of Inverurie, Aberdeenshire: Archaeological Evidence from a Medieval Lordship’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 129, 649–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chrystall, F. and McCullagh, R. 2000. ‘The Classification of Field Systems by Shape and Function’, in Tounships to Farmsteads: Rural Settlement Studies in Scotland, England and Wales, BAR 293 (Oxford), 117–29.Google Scholar
Cook, H. and Williamson, T. 2007. ‘The Later History of Water Meadows’, in Cook, H. and Williamson, T. eds, Water Meadows: History, Ecology and Conservation (Cheshire), 52–69.Google Scholar
Dodgshon, R. A. 1980. ‘Medieval Settlement and Colonisation’, in Parry, M. L. and Slater, T. R. eds, The Making of the Scottish Countryside (Montreal), pp. 45–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodgshon, R. A. 1993. ‘West Highland and Hebridean Settlement Prior to Crofting and the Clearances: A Study in Stability or Change?’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 123, 419–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodgshon, R. A. 2004. ‘The Scottish Highlands before and after the Clearances: An Ecological Perspective,’ in Whyte, I. D. and Winchester, J. L. eds, Society, Landscape and Environment in Upland Britain, Society for Landscape Studies Supplementary Series 2, 67–78.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. J. S and Smout, T. C.Scottish Economic History Database, www.ex.ac.uk~ajgibson/scotdata/pricesGoogle Scholar
Gibson, A. J. S. 1988.‘Medieval Corn-drying Kilns at Capo, Kincardineshire and Abercairny, Perthshire’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 118, 219–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, J. 2005. ‘Mapping Improvement: Reshaping Rural Landscapes in the Eighteenth Century’, Landscapes, 6:1, 62–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagerås, P. 2007. The Ecology of Expansion and Abandonment, National Heritage Board, Sweden.Google Scholar
Macaulay Institute. 1982. Soil Survey of Scotland: Eastern Scotland (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
MacNiven, D. 1986. ‘Merchants and Traders in Early Seventeenth Century Aberdeen’, in Stevenson, D. ed., From Lairds to Louns (Aberdeen), 57–69.Google Scholar
Murray, H. K and Murray, J. C. 1993. ‘Excavations at Rattray, Aberdeenshire: A Scottish Deserted Burgh’, in Mediaeval Archaeology, 37, 109–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry, M. L. and Slater, T. R. eds, 1980. The Making of the Scottish Countryside (Montreal).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, J. B. ed. 1984. The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland (Edinburgh)Google Scholar
Pirie, J. 1906. ‘The Parish of Cairnie’, Banffhsire Journal, Banff.Google Scholar
Pollock, D. 1985. ‘The Lunan Valley Project: Medieval Rural Settlement in Angus,’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 115, 357–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, A. 2006. ‘Scottish Environmental history and the (Mis)use of Soums’, Agricultural History Review, 54:2, 213–28.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. 2007. In the Shadow of Bennachie, A Field Archaeology of Donside (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Scott, P. W. 1997. The History of Strathbogie (Findhorn).Google Scholar
Shepherd, C. 2007. ‘Mediaeval Fields in North-east Scotland’, Landscape History, 29, 47–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, T. R. 1980 ‘Mansion and Policy’, in Parry, M. L. and Slater, T. R. eds, The Making of the Scottish Countryside (Montreal), pp. 223–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Spalding Club. 1849. The Miscellany of the Spalding Club. Volume 4. (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
The Spalding Club. 1845. Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Taylor, C. 2007. ‘The Archaeology of Water Meadows,’ in Cook, H. and Williamson, T. eds, Water Meadows: History, Ecology and Conservation (Cheshire), pp. 22–34.Google Scholar
Tyson, R. E. 1986.‘Famine in Aberdeenshire, 1695–1699: Anatomy of a Crisis,’ in Stevenson, D. ed., From Lairds to Louns (Aberdeen), 32–52.Google Scholar
Whittington, G. and Whyte, I. eds 1983. An Historical Geography of Scotland (London).Google Scholar
Whyte, I. 1979. Agriculture and Society in Seventeenth Century Scotland (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Whyte, I. 1980. ‘The Emergence of the New Estate Structure’, in Parry, M. L. and Slater, T. R. eds, The Making of the Scottish Countryside (Montreal), pp.117–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, I. 1983. ‘Early Modern Scotland: Continuity and Change’, in Whittington, G. and Whyte, I. eds, An Historical Geography of Scotland (London), pp. 119–40.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000. Suffolk's Gardens and Parks, Cheshire.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2007. ‘‘Floating’ in Context: Meadows in the Long Term,’ in Cook, H. and Williamson, T. eds, Water Meadows: History, Ecology and Conservation (Cheshire), 35–51.Google Scholar
Witherington, D. J. and Grant, I. R., eds 1982. The Statistical Account of Scotland, Volume XV, 1791–1799Google Scholar
Yeoman, P. 1998. ‘Excavations at Castle of Wardhouse, Aberdeenshire’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 128, 581–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, A. 1993. ‘The Earls and Earldom of Buchan in the Thirteenth Century,’ in Grant, A. and Stringer, K. J. eds, Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community (Edinburgh), 174–202.Google Scholar
Young, M. 2007. ‘Scottish Crop Yields in the Second Half of the 17th Century: Evidence from the Mains of Castle Lyon in the Carse of Gowrie,’ in Agricultural History Review, 55:1, 51–74.Google Scholar