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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quotation dates: 1723-1793, 1845, 1954

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PUNDLAND, n. Also poundland. A piece of land orig. assessed at the annual value of one pound in the Extent, q.v. This was fixed as equivalent to half a ploughgate or four Oxgangs in 1585. Now only hist. but still surviving in place-names in sm.Sc.Gsw. 1723 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1909) 178:
He should dispone to the toun his four pund land of Burrowfield.
Wgt. 1762 Session Papers, Stewart v. Dalrymple (5 Jan.) 33:
In so far as concerns this Shire of Wigton, every one of the Kirk Lands . . . is described by the Designation of Pound or Merk Lands.
Ayr. 1793 Burns My Lord A-Hunting ii.:
But her ten-pund lands o' tocher guid Were a' the charms his lordship lo'ed.
Kcb. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 IV. 126:
His Majesty would bestow upon them the thirty pund land.
Sc. 1954 P.S.A.S. LXXVIII. 59:
The Norse scale of land denominations in descending order was the ounceland, pennyland, halfpennyland, farthingland, and smaller fractions. It did not include poundlands, marklands, or shillinglands. The latter had a quite different historical origin and belonged to a different order.

[From Pund, n.1, + land. O.Sc. pundland, id., 1500.]

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"Pundland n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 6 Feb 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/pundland>

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