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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DROVE, n. and v. Sc. usages.

1. n.

(1) An unenclosed road used for driving cattle (Peb. 1900 E.D.D.); in local use also in Eng., esp. in the Fen district. Gen. in combs., now mostly hist.: (a) drove-road, a road or track used for the driving of sheep or cattle to annual fairs or cattle markets; “the privilege of using a road of this description as a servitude which may be acquired by prescription” (Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 347); also in s.Eng. dial.; (b) drove-stance, a halting-place on a drove-road where drovers rested and pastured their cattle.(a) Sc. 1732 D. Hume Trial for Crime (1800) I. 334:
Injuring a drove of cattle, on their passage along a public drove-road.Sc. 1773 Faculty Decis. (1784) 170:
They . . . had been in the usage of a drove-road to Kilbryde fair.Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxvi.:
The march . . . hauds doun by the auld drove-road that gaes awa' by the Knot o' the Gate ower to Keeldarward.Sc. 1895 Macmillan's Mag. (Oct.) 449:
“The Drove Road” is a picturesque description of a time and custom dead and gone, though not so long ago. The drove road in Southern Scotland is the way once used by drovers and men of their class from the extreme north, from the Hebrides, from Perth and Argyll.Sc. 1921 G. M. Fraser Old Deeside Road 93:
The Glen Builg Pass . . . a well-used drove road from the north country beyond the Avon by way of Loch Builg to Braemar.Sc. 1952 A. R. B. Haldane The Drove Roads of Scotland (1973) 4:
At an early stage of the research it became apparent that to construct a map on which were marked all the routes, the use of which at one time or another as drove roads could be established by reasonable evidence, through the very multiplicity of routes, would lose much of its meaning. Sc. 1994 Herald 24 Jun 3:
A Judge has ruled substantially in favour of a farmer and wife who want to use an old drove road running to the north of Lord Burton's estate at Dochfour, near the Beauly Firth. Sc. 1997 Scotland on Sunday 13 Apr 22:
From the castle follow the coast to Ardmore bay where the main track can be rejoined. Pass the old house at Ardmore and now follow the old drove-road above Port Phàdruig to Barnabuck, the Ridge of the Roebucks. Sc. 2000 Herald 28 Jun 11:
The abandoned village and the centuries-old drove road are among the highlights of the four-mile Leitir Fura trail which winds through one of the Highlands' finest broadleaf woodlands. Sc. 2002 Herald 28 Oct 30:
The historic drove roads of Scotland - living links to a cultural tradition which began in medieval times and endured into the early years of last century - may finally be given special protection. Sc. 2004 Press and Journal 8 Nov 4:
However, the vast majority of roads in our area were not built from greenfield site situations but rather they have developed from narrow cart tracks and drove roads.Lnl. 1845 Stat. Acc.² I. 357:
There is a hollow slope or declivity, known by the name of the Caldstane Slap, through which pass lies the drove road most commonly frequented by dealers in sheep and cattle between the Scotch and English markets.(b) Sc. 1846 Session Cases (1846–7) 212:
On the great drove-road by Glencoe and the Blackmount above described, there had been, for centuries past, and as far back as its history reached, drove-stances at stated distances for the resting of the sheep and cattle.

(2) A broad-faced chisel used by stonemasons, a boaster (Sc. 1825 Jam.²; 1900 E.D.D.; Cai., Bnff., Abd. 1950).Sc. 1834 G. Smith Construct. Cottages 35:
Droved Ashlar is that which is finished on the face with a broad flat-edgetool, called a drove. It varies from one to two inches in breadth; and the harder the stone, the narrower must the drove be.

2. v.

(1) tr. and intr. To drive (cattle or sheep), to follow the occupation of a drover (Fif. 1825 Jam.²). Vbl.n. droving.Sc. 1805 R. Forsyth Beauties Scot. II. 328:
The persons who drove to a considerable extent ought to have funds or friends of their own to be security for them.Abd. 1877 W. Alexander Rural Life 68:
In the latter half of the eighteenth century, the Falkirk Trysts, where the southern dealers in cattle met the dealers from the northward, had grown to a position of great importance, . . . the locality [being] convenient for the dealers who bought cattle to “drove” southward.w.Sc. 1869 A. Macdonald Settlement 52:
“Ladies an' gentlemen, . . . A'm no good at speaking” — “No, ye're better at droving.”Dmf. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ II. 342:
The greater part of the inhabitants being employed in farming, droving, handy-crafts, and common labour.

¶(2) intr. To move in droves.m.Sc. 1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xii.:
His proud horsemen are drovin' ower frae Clyde like craws in the back-end.

(3) tr. To dress stone by means of a drove (see n. (2) above) (Sc. 1825 Jam.²; Cai. 1900 E.D.D.; Abd. 1951). Ppl.adj. droved, vbl.n. droving.Sc. 1781 Scots Mag. (March) 120:
2600 feet, droved and striped ashler, oval form.Sc. 1842 J. Gwilt Archit. § 1914–15:
Droving is the same as that called random tooling in England, or boasting in London. . . . The workman will not take the same pains to drove the face of a stone which is to be afterwards broached.Per. 1900 E.D.D.:
The stone is broached with the puncheon, after which it is scabbled and tooled or droved.