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The Central Uplands of Buchan – a distinctive agricultural zone in the thirteenth century: fact or fiction?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2021

Colin Shepherd
Colin Shepherd*
Affiliation:
Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

It can be argued, based upon a limited range of surviving evidence, that the land-locked centre of Buchan formed a distinctive upland zone functioning alongside and interwoven with the surrounding lower lands during the thirteenth century. The area can be characterised as less densely settled and engaged in extensive pastoral farming regimes that contrasted with contemporary arable farming of a more intensive nature on the lower-lying lands. Subsequent demographic and agricultural changes have rendered that former environment invisible and the limited documentary sources of the thirteenth century have compounded its mystery. Although a relatively remote upland area, its economy was at least as successful per capita than the rich grain lands surrounding it. Rather than representing a place of secondary importance, it may well have been instrumental in fuelling Aberdeen’s rich thirteenth-century export trade of sheep products to the Low Countries and, perhaps, shared a symbiotic relationship with the lower, arable lands.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , April 2021 , pp. 41 - 75
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Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

References

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Shepherd, C. 2018. ‘A 12th-century “bowl-fired” grain-drying kiln at Druminnor Castle, Aberdeenshire: implications for social change, agricultural productivity and landscape development in north-east Scotland’, Studia Celtica, 52:1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiel, R. S. 1991. ‘Improving Soil Productivity in the Pre-fertiliser Era’, in Campbell and Overton, eds, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp. 51–77.Google Scholar
Stephenson, M. J. 1988. ‘Wool yields in the medieval economy’, Economic History Review, New Series, 41:3, 368–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, A. W. K. 1982. ‘Trade Between Scotland and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Stringer, K. J. 1985. Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152–1219 (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Temple, W. 1894. The Thanage of Fermartyn (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Watt, D. E. R. 2001. ‘Bagimond di Vezza and his “Roll”’, Scottish History Review, 80:1, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Whyte, I. 1998. ‘Pre-improvement rural settlement in Scotland: progress and prospects’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 114:2, 76–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acts of the Lords of Council in Civil Causes, Volume 1, Edinburgh, 1893.Google Scholar
Aberdeen Sheriff Court Book, I (ASCB, I), Littlejohn, D., New Spalding Club, 1904.Google Scholar
Aberdeen Sheriff Court Book, II (ASCB, II), Littlejohn, D., New Spalding Club, 1906.Google Scholar
British Geological Survey materials © NERC, 2018.Google Scholar
Chartulary of the Abbey of Lindores, 1195–1479, Edinburgh, Scottish History Society, trans. Dowden, Rev. J., 1903.Google Scholar
Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff (Coll, A&B), Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1843.Google Scholar
Illustrations of the Topography and Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff (Ill, A&B), Spalding Club, Aberdeen, vols 1–4, 1847–69.Google Scholar
1674 Land Tax Rolls for Aberdeenshire <www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/historical-tax-rolls/land-tax-rolls-1645-1831>..>Google Scholar
Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia, Edinburgh, 1841.Google Scholar
Liber St Thome de Aberbrothoc, Edinburgh, 1848.Google Scholar
List of the Pollable Persons within the Shire of Aberdeen, 1696, Volumes First and Second, Aberdeen, 1844.Google Scholar
Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 33:6, Edinburgh, 1939, Edinburgh and <http://digital.nls.uk/125885873>..>Google Scholar
Charter by William Gordon in favour of Patrick Urquhart, MS 2778/1/3/7, University of Aberdeen, Special Collections, 1635.Google Scholar
Inventories of the writs of the Muirs of Fyvie, MS 2778/6/1, University of Aberdeen, Special Collections, 1635–1736.Google Scholar
Various rentals pertaining to Duff House and the Earls of Fife, MS 3175/M/B100, University of Aberdeen, Special Collections: King Edward rental, late eighteenth century; Banff and Down rental, 1741.Google Scholar
Gairnieston Estate, MS 3175/RHP/31467, University of Aberdeen, Special Collections, 1768–9.Google Scholar
New Statistical Accounts of Scotland: Aberdeenshire, Volume XII, Aberdeen, 1845.Google Scholar
REA, Registrum Epicopatus Aberdonensis, Edinburgh, 1845.Google Scholar
REM, Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, Edinburgh, 1837.Google Scholar
RMS, Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, Thomson, J. M. et al., Edinburgh, 1882–1914.Google Scholar
RRS, Regesta Regum Scottorum, III, Acts of Alexander II, Stringer, K. J., ed. <www.poms.ac.uk>..>Google Scholar
Craigston Estate, National Records of Scotland, MS 3175/RHP/31467, 1780–2.Google Scholar
The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Land Capability for Agriculture Maps of Scotland, 1983.Google Scholar
The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Soil Survey of Scotland, 1984.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C. 1991. ‘The Two English Agricultural Revolutions, 1450–1850’, in Campbell, B. M. S. and Overton, M., eds, Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity (Manchester), pp. 236–54.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C. 2004. Progress and Poverty in Early Modern Europe <www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/povprog3NEW.pdf>.CrossRef.>Google Scholar
Bailey, M. 2002. The English Manor, c. 1200–c. 1500 (Manchester).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, B. M. S. 2008. ‘Benchmarking medieval economic development: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland’, Economic History Review, 61:4, 896–945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, G. 2006. ‘Interpreting English Economic History 1200–1800: Malthusian Stasis or Early Dynamism? XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, 2006, Session 122 <http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers3/Clark>..>Google Scholar
Ditchburn, D. 1990. ‘Cargoes and commodities. Aberdeen’s trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic, c. 1302–c. 1542’, Northern Studies, 27: 12–22.Google Scholar
Dixon, P. 2003, ‘Champagne Country: A Review of Medieval Settlement in Lowland Scotland’, in Govan, S., ed., Medieval or Later Rural Settlement in Scotland: 10 Years On (Edinburgh), pp. 53–64.Google Scholar
Dixon, P. 2011. ‘Of Bannocks and Ale: Cereal Processing in Scotland, c. 1100–1750’, in Klápšte, J. and Sommer, P., eds, Food in the Medieval Rural Environment, Ruralia, VIII (Turnhout), pp. 155–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowden, J. 1910. The Medieval Church in Scotland: Its Constitution, Organisation and Law (Glasgow).Google Scholar
Fox, H. 2012. Dartmoor’s Alluring Uplands, Transhumance and Pastoral Management in the Middle Ages (Exeter).Google Scholar
Gemmill, E. and Mayhew, N. 2006. Changing Values in Medieval Scotland, A Study of Prices, Money, Weights and Measures (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Govan, S., ed., 2003. Medieval or Later Rural Settlement in Scotland: 10 Years On (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Kilpatrick, M. 2017. ‘ARO26: The Complex History of a Rural Medieval Building in Kintore, Aberdeenshire’ <www.archaeologyreportsonline.com>..>Google Scholar
Koufopoulos, A. J. 2004. ‘The Cattle Trades of Scotland, 1603–1745’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Macinnes, L. 2003. ‘Medieval or Later Rural Settlement: 10 Years On’, in Govan, ed., Medieval or Later Rural Settlement in Scotland, pp. 3–6.Google Scholar
McNeill, P. G. B. and MacQueen, H. L. 1996. Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Murray, H. K. and Murray, J. C. 1992. ‘Excavations at Rattray, Aberdeenshire: a Scottish deserted burgh’, Medieval Archaeology, 37: 109–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neville, C. J. 2010. Land, Law and People in Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newfield, T. P. 2009. ‘A cattle panzootic in early fourteenth-century Europe’, Agricultural History Review, 57:2, 155–90.Google Scholar
O’Grady, O. J. T. 2014. ‘Judicial assembly sites in Scotland: archaeological and place-name evidence of the Scottish Court Hill’, Medieval Archaeology, 58: 104–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oram, R. 2003. ‘Continuity, Adaptation and integration: the Earls and Earldom of Mar’, in Boardman, S. and Ross, A., eds, The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200–1500 (Dublin).Google Scholar
Oram, R. 2016. ‘The Medieval Church in the Dioceses of Aberdeen and Moray’, in Geddes, J. ed., Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in the Dioceses of Aberdeen and Moray (Leeds), pp. 16–32.Google Scholar
Rorke, M. 2006. ‘English and Scottish overseas trade’, Economic History Review, New Series, 59:2, 265–88.Google Scholar
Rydval, M., Loader, N. J., Gunnarson, B. E., Druckenbrod, D. L., Linderholm, H. W., Moreton, S. G., Wood, C. V. and Wilson, R. 2017. ‘Reconstructing 800 years of summer temperatures in Scotland from tree rings’, Climate Dynamics, 49:9–10, 2951–74. <doi:10.1007/s00382-016-3478-8>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, C. 2007. ‘Mediaeval fields in north-east Scotland’, Landscape History, 29: 47–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, C. 2011. ‘Agrarian and settlement characterisation in post-medieval Strathbogie, Aberdeenshire, 1600–1760’, Rural History, 22:1, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, C. 2018. ‘A 12th-century “bowl-fired” grain-drying kiln at Druminnor Castle, Aberdeenshire: implications for social change, agricultural productivity and landscape development in north-east Scotland’, Studia Celtica, 52:1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiel, R. S. 1991. ‘Improving Soil Productivity in the Pre-fertiliser Era’, in Campbell and Overton, eds, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp. 51–77.Google Scholar
Stephenson, M. J. 1988. ‘Wool yields in the medieval economy’, Economic History Review, New Series, 41:3, 368–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, A. W. K. 1982. ‘Trade Between Scotland and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Stringer, K. J. 1985. Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152–1219 (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Temple, W. 1894. The Thanage of Fermartyn (Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Watt, D. E. R. 2001. ‘Bagimond di Vezza and his “Roll”’, Scottish History Review, 80:1, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, I. 1981. ‘The evolution of rural settlement in lowland Scotland in medieval and early modern times: an exploration’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 97:1, 4–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, I. 1998. ‘Pre-improvement rural settlement in Scotland: progress and prospects’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 114:2, 76–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar