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.
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.
