Blair Collection > Place names in Strathbogie, with notes historical, antiquarian and descriptive

Rhynie. 283
it is said — ' Strathbogie was of old divided into
forty- eight davachs, each containing as much as
four ploughs could till in a year.' This has no
doubt always been the popular opinion in the
district, and it is supported to some extent by
known facts. The four divisions of Kinnoir
almost represent the extent of the parish. In
the case of Rhynie, we only want one to com-
plete the traditional number assigned to it,
though several of these dauchs have lost their
old names. Glass was almost completely
mapped out into regular and equal divisions,
which are still well-known. Dunbennan evi-
dently underwent greater changes at an early
date, and I have not found a single instance in
this parish of the term being applied to any
farm or group of farms, though Collonach pro-
bably was a dauch in name as it was in reality.
In the Rental of 1600, the unit of land measure
was the plough-gate, by w^hich, and its propor-
tional parts,* all rents were adjusted whether in
' money maills ' or ' ferme victuall.' A davach
(dabhacJi) means literally a 'vat,' and in this
sense it is used in Irish names ; but how the
word has come to describe a certain extent of
land in Scotland is as yet unexplained.
I much regret that I have not been able to re-
cover the whole of the names of these old davachs
* 8 oxgates=l plough-gate, 4 plough-gates = i davach,
or 416 acres.