An introduction to Renfrewshire’s land-assessment system, Denis Rixson

For anyone interested in the early history of Renfrewshire we have very limited historical  records; what archaeology tells us and what place-names imply. However we conjure it, the legacy is sparse and we must extract all that we can from those records we do have.  There is one source of historical information which has been relatively neglected and that is land-assessment. Land-assessment simply means the study of the relative valuations put on land over many centuries. It sounds tedious. Dry-as-dust collections of data where Farm A is worth so many merklands, Farm B so many pennylands and Farm C a davach, an arachor, or a carucate. But, put it all together and the landscape soon reveals an arithmetic pattern. The earliest settlers in Renfrewshire behaved exactly as they did in every other cultivable county in Britain. They divided up the landscape in a coherent manner and gave it a fiscal overlay. In most parts of Scotland there are at least two fiscal overlays, geared to each other by exchange rates. Arithmetic is the key to unlocking these systems and the relationships between them.

From Inverkip to Houston Parish, 1065 to the present day. If you have ever wondered where nameplaces and areas within the  old  County of Renfrewshire came about this is definately for you.

Denis has published several  books on the Scottish Highlands some you may know :  The West Highland Way,  Arisaig & Morar,  Knoydart,  The Hebridean Traveller and more.