How the Land Was Farmed Before Crofting

The imposition of land assessments also had a far-reaching impact on how Hebridean touns were farmed. This was owing to the fact that they formed the basis for the apportionment of rents. Just as earlier renders and levies burdened on families and kin-groups were based around payments in kind (grain, livestock, etc.) and services, so too were the rents burdened on land assessments. Under the feudalized systems of land tenure that emerged with land assessments, the kindred chiefs, petty lords and other major landholders who now—in theory—held their land from the crown, paid a ‘rent’ based on the provision of military support or the discharge of the functions of administration that surrounded early kingships. For those who worked the soil and who now held their land from these chiefs and other major landholders, land assessments became the basis for the payment of rents that were made up of rents in kind, largely but not exclusively food rents, plus labour services and cash payments known as Crown rents. These were apportioned across each unit of land assessment on a pro rata basis. The food rents involved had a core purpose. They provided support for the maintenance of the household and fighting men who surrounded the chiefs and landowners as well as that which was needed for displays of feasting. They also had the effect of imposing a straightjacket on how land was farmed. Two broad systems of husbandry emerged: one based on the recycling of the manure from livestock and the midden and the other based on the transfer of energy from the sea and shore to the land via inputs of seaweed. The structure of these two systems, and what underpinned them, are explored in detail.