3/11/2020 Carucate - Wikipedia

Carucate
The carucate or carrucate (Medieval
Latin: carrūcāta or carūcāta)[1] was a
medieval unit of land area
approximating the land a plough team
of eight oxen could till in a single
annual season. It was known by
different regional names and fell under
different forms of tax assessment.

Contents
England
Scotland
See also
References
Farm-derived units of measurement:

England 1. The rod is a historical unit of length equal to 51⁄2

The carucate was named for the carruca
heavy plough that began to appear in
England in the 9th century, introduced
by the Viking invasions of England. It
was also known as a ploughland or
plough (Old English: plōgesland,
"plough's land") in the Danelaw usually
but not always excluded the land's
suitability for winter vegetables and
desirability to remain fallow in crop
rotation. The tax levied on each
carucate came to be known as
"carucage". Though a carucate might
nominally be regarded as an area of 120
acres (49 hectares), and can usefully be
equated to certain definitions of the
hide, its variation over time and
depending on soil and fertility makes its
actual figure wildly variable.[2] The
Danelaw carucates were subdivided
into eighths: oxgangs or bovates based
on the area a single ox could till in a
year.
yards. It may have originated from the typical length
of a mediaeval ox-goad. There are 4 rods in one
chain.
2. The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the
distance a team of oxen could plough without
resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods
or 10 chains.
3. An acre was the amount of land tillable by one man
behind one ox in one day. Traditional acres were
long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the
plough and the value of river front access.
4. An oxgang was the amount of land tillable by one ox
in a ploughing season. This could vary from village
to village, but was typically around 15 acres.
5. A virgate was the amount of land tillable by two oxen
in a ploughing season.
6. A carucate was the amount of land tillable by a team
of eight oxen in a ploughing season. This was equal
to 8 oxgangs or 4 virgates.

In the rest of England, the land was reckoned in hides which were divided into four yardlands, later
known as virgates.

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3/11/2020 Carucate - Wikipedia

Scotland
A ploughgate was the Scottish equivalent in the south and east of the country. Even more so than in
England, the variable land quality in Scotland led to ploughgates of varying sizes, although the area
was notionally understood as 100 Scots acres. Many sources say that four ploughgates made up a
daugh, but in other places it would have appeared to have been the equivalent of one daugh exactly.
As in the Danelaw, ploughgates were subdivided into oxgangs, again usually by eighths.

See also
Aratrum terrae
English units:
hide
virgate, nook, farundel
acre
Scottish units in the East Highlands:
daugh
oxgang
Scots acre
Scots rood
Scottish units in the West Highlands:
Scots markland
Ounceland
Quarterland
Pennyland
Groatland

References
1. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "carucate, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1888.
2. See e.g. Stenton, F.M., 'Introduction', in Foster, C.W. & Longley, T. (eds.), The Lincolnshire
Domesday and the Lindsey Survey, Lincoln Record Society, XIX, 1924, especially pp. ix-xix.

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