Udal Law

• Reference:GB 241 D1/401
• Dates of Creation:1994
• Name of Creator:
  Watters, Margaret (1994-), Local historian
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  0.01 Linear Metres

• Scope and Content

  Photocopy of manuscript notes made by Margaret Watters on a personal perspective of udal law in Orkney and Shetland, with special reference to Stenness, 1994

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Udal Law is the Norwegian system of land tenure holding in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The land is divided into scattald, or common grazing, and land divided into merks (the size of a merk depending on the quality of the land) which was held by a settler without obligation to any superior. Under udal law the foreshore was completely unrestricted. The system has never been abolished

• Access Information

  Open

• Related Material

  GB241/D1/398