Croft (land)

A croft is a traditional Scottish term for a fenced or enclosed area of land. It is usually small and arable, and typically, though not always, includes a crofter's dwelling. A crofter is a person who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer in rural areas.

In Northern England, "crofter" was a term associated with tenant farming and rural employment. For example, in the textiles industry, it referred to someone who bleached cloth prior to dyeing by laying it out in fields known as "crofts".[1][2][3]

Etymology

The word croft is West Germanic in etymology, derived from the Dutch term kroft or krocht and the Old English croft (itself of debated origin), meaning an enclosed field.[4] Today, the term is used most frequently in Scotland, most crofts being in the Highlands and Islands area. Elsewhere the expression is generally archaic. In Scottish Gaelic, it is rendered croit (, plural croitean ).

Legislation in Scotland

The Scottish croft is a small agricultural landholding of a type that has been subject to special legislation applying to the Scottish Highlands since 1886.[5] The legislation was largely a response to the complaints and demands of tenant families who were victims of the Highland Clearances. The modern crofters or tenants appear very little in evidence before the beginning of the 18th century. They were tenants at will underneath the tacksman and wadsetters, but practically their tenure was secure enough. The first evidence that can be found of small tenants holding directly of the proprietor is in a rental of the estates of Sir D. MacDonald in Skye and North Uist in 1715.[6]

The first planned crofting townships in the Outer Hebrides were Barragloum and Kirkibost (Great Bernera) which were laid out into 32 large "lots" of between 14 and 30 acres in the uniform rectangular pattern that would become very familiar in later decades. This work was carried out in 1805 by James Chapman for the Earl of Seaforth.

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey in 1850 clearly highlights the division of this land and the turf and stone boundaries built by the first tenants in 1805 are still in use today as croft boundaries. Kirkibost was 'cleared' of its tenants in 1823 and the 1850 mapping clearly shows roofless ruins on each parcel of land.

See also

• Crofting
• Torp (architecture)

External links

• Crofters Commission
• Scottish Crofting Federation