A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Plank, n.2 [? Plank n.1 Cf. mod. Sw. dial. planka ‘a strip of arable land, 6–10 fathoms in depth’ (Jakobsen), and ? cf. OF. planche (1293, Godef.) a strip of land. Also in the mod. dial. of Shetland, Orkney and Caithness.] In Orkney: A unitary parcel of arable land; a single plot of arable land, as distinct from the scattered strips of runrig land. (See further SND, s.v. Plank n., and J. S. Clouston in Sc. Hist. Rev. XVII. and XXII., and F. W. L. Thomas in Soc. Ant. XVIII. 277–8.) —1631 Sc. Hist. Rev. XVII. 27.
That haill plank of girsland quhairupon the haill houses of Eister Gravis stands 1642 Ib. 29.
Sundry rigs, planks and hill balks 1686 Ib. XXII. 184.
That the most pairt of the town land … lye … in one plank Ib. 186.
Quhere the other town land lye cross in any shed or plank thereof
