Norse Shielings in Scotland: An Example of Cultural Contact

• Main Author: Foster, Ryan
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh University Press 2023
• Subjects: Faroes
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474485821.003.0015

This chapter discusses how Scandinavians would have had to adapt their farming practices to suit the landscapes and soils of Scotland, with cultural contact between Scandinavian and native groups taking place on the farm. Through research into the place-name elements of Gaelic ærgi and Old Norse saetr it suggests that the use of shielings to separate milk cows from other cattle, rather than grazing them all together in an integrated arable/pastoral infield/outfield system, may have been a practice learnt by the Norse from the native Gaelic farming focus on dairying. As Scandinavians settled the Irish Sea Region, they encountered Gaelic speakers and the use of the specialised milking shieling, and once adopted, this system spread through secondary migration to new settlements in the Faroes and Cumbria, and older ones in the Northern Isles.