Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DAVACH, DAVOCH, n. Also dauch, daugh. A measure of land, formerly used in the north and east of Scotland and generally considered equal to four ploughgates. The exact extent probably varied in different districts (see quots.); “it included rough ground as well as arable and was a territorial unit of productive capacity rather than a measure of area” (Abd.¹⁶). Hist. [′dɑvəx, dɑ(:)x, dǫ:x]Sc. 1726 Invercauld Rec. (N.S.C. 1901) 136:
They extend together to eight Oxgates, or half a Davoch of Land with Houses, Biggings, etc.Inv. 1808 J. Robertson Agric. Inv. 75:
The divisions of land marked by pounds and marks, etc. are frequent in the lower parts of Scotland; but daughs and bolls are unknown any where south of Inverness-shire. Every daugh seems to have consisted of forty-eight bolls, which comprehended a greater or smaller district of country, according to the quality of the soil.Mry. 1727 W. Cramond Court Bks. Regality Grant (1897) 27:
Heritors in the Dauch of Laggan.Bnff. 1787 W. Cramond in Trans. Bnffsh. Field Club (1901) 29:
The davach of Grange contains 42 oxgates or so.Abd. 1726 MS. in C. Innes Legal Antiq. (1872) 273:
Strathbogie was of old divided into forty-eight Davachs, each containing as much as four ploughs could till in a year.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIX. 290:
A davach contains 32 oxengates of 13 acres each, or 416 acres of arable land.