Re Word "Merk"

[qbutterbee]

Hi all
Can anybody help me with the meaning of this word "merk". I have come across a site in the Shetlands that has this word in a sentence indicating possibly a land measure.

Thanking in Advance
Debbie from South Australia

[Ros Fornaro]

Hi Debbie,

Oxford dictionary give mark/merk as a boundary or a landmark.

Ros

[JAP]

Hi Debbie,

My immediate reaction was that a merk was a unit of Scottish currency.

You will find reference to Scots money on Scottish documents at:
Click Here

But I also found the following in their glossary which mentions it being also a measure of valuation of land:
mark or merk
a silver coin worth 13 shillings 4 pence (or two-thirds of a pound) Scots, and therefore just over shilling sterling at the time of the Union; common also as a unit of valuation of land, as in "the two merklands of ault extent of Glaur"

This is an interesting site on old money:
http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/coins/engl.html

Regards,

JAP

[RJ_Paton]

A MERK is an old Scots coin equal to 13/4 Scots. A merkland is land valued in auld extent at that sum. A ploughgate being a forty-shilling land of Auld Extent and being calculated at about 104 aces, a merkland would be on an average 34 acres, the exact size however depending rather on its productive capacity than on its superficial area.

from http://www.ros.gov.uk/foi/plans/docs/plans10.html

[qbutterbee]

Hi everybody

I wish to say thnak you very much for your replies re "Merk". I am now a little bit more knowledgable on land measures. Thank you again

Cheers Debbie from South Australia