{{Short description|Popular court in medieval Scotland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} A '''comhdhail''' or '''couthal''' was a popular court in medieval Scotland. The word derives from Old Gaelic ''comdal'', "tryst" or "assembly".<ref name=Atlas-191>McNeill and MacQueen, ''Atlas of Scottish History'', p. 191</ref> Distinct from courts of the king, mormaers and senior barons, such courts were organized at a lower level of society, by peasant communities for themselves.<ref>Barrow, ''Scotland and its Neighbours'', p. 218</ref> It was probably similar to the English hundred or tithing court.<ref>Barrow, ''Scotland and its Neighbours'', p. 217</ref>
Although most of the details of how it functioned are lost, enough evidence of it exists to be sure of its importance. In 1329, Geoffrey, abbot of Arbroath, made an agreement with one of its senior tenants, Fergus mac Donnchaidh (Fergus son of Duncan).<ref name=Barrow-220>Barrow, ''Scotland and its Neighbours'', p. 220</ref> Abbot Geoffrey leased the land of Tulloes and Craichie (near Dunnichen) to Fergus, allowing him to introduce his own men.<ref name=Barrow-220/> The agreement specified the abbot's legal rights, but allowed that "the aforesaid Fergus and his heir ... have the court which is called ''couthal'' for the men residing within the said land, to deal with the countless acts arising amongst themselves only, and they shall have the fines arising therefrom".<ref name=Barrow-220/> Historian Geoffrey Barrow also noted that in a charter of 1317, by which Robert "janitor of Kincardine" granted Donnchadh ''Kymbdy'' burgess of Aberdeen land at ''Achichdonachy'' ("Donnchadh's field") ''cum curia et conthal'', "with court and comhdhail".<ref>Barrow, ''Scotland and its Neighbours'', pp. 220–21</ref>
Barrow further noted that Andrew of Wyntoun appears to have translated the Latin word ''lucos'' ("groves"), as ''kwthlys''.<ref name=Barrow-222>Barrow, ''Scotland and its Neighbours'', p. 222</ref> Gavin Douglas' translation of Virgil used ''cythyll'' and ''cuthyll'', implying that the word connoted a woodland clearing as well as an assembly.<ref name=Barrow-222/>
Records of such assemblies are preserved in place-names. Over thirty modern place-names deriving from '''''comhdhail''''' survive in Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps, with a similar number recorded in pre-modern documentary sources, but now lost.<ref>McNeill and MacQueen, ''Atlas of Scottish History'', p. 191, for map</ref> Examples come almost entirely from eastern and lowland Scotland, stretching from Peeblesshire to Sutherland.<ref name=Atlas-191/> Instances include various locations called "Cothill", "Cuttyhill", "Cuthill", and others like Glenquithle and Cuttieshillock.<ref name=Atlas-191/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== {{refbegin}} * {{citation| last = Barrow | first = G. W. S. | author-link = G. W. S. Barrow | title = Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages | year = 1992 | place = London | publisher = The Hambledon Press | isbn = 1-85285-052-3}} * {{citation |editor-last=McNeill |editor-first=Peter G. B. |editor2-last=MacQueen |editor2-first=Hector L. | editor2-link= Hector MacQueen | editor3-last = Lyons | editor3-first = Anna May |title=Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=The Scottish Medievalists and Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh |date=2000 |edition=reprinted with corrections |isbn=0-9503904-1-0 }} {{refend}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comhdhail}} Category:Medieval Scots law Institutions of Scotland in the High Middle Ages