Old Photograph Crofter Orkney Scotland

Old photograph of a Crofter harrowing a field on Orkney Islands, Scotland. A croft is a small piece of arable land, land that can be used for growing crops. In the 18th century Highlands, it was held by an individual tenant, and it combined a few acres of arable land, the croft, plus access to pasture land for communal grazing of livestock, the outfield land. The crofting system prevailed mainly in the Highlands and Islands. Before the clan system was proscribed after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, tilling rights as well as grazing rights were all held communally.



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