Langriggs

I seem to have spent a good part of this week in Cumbernauld Village. If it wasn't related to getting things set up for our church's Summer Fair on Saturday - picture to follow, I suspect - then it was the long-awaited visit to the dentist. Maybe a week isn't long in the grand scheme of things, but it is when one has toothache. (Now sorted, in case you were wondering.)

Behind the dentist's surgery on Main Street there are the Langriggs and, since it's been a several years since I last walked through them, I thought I'd pay them a visit. Safe to say I was very impressed by what the local community has done to preserve this rare piece of local, and Scottish, history. (What follows has been based on an interpretation board on the site.)

The Langriggs, or long riggs (narrow ridges or furrows of land) date from medieval times. They spread out on either side of, and roughly perpendicular to, a village's main street. Villagers used these narrow strips of land behind their houses for growing food and keeping livestock. Each rigg was separated from its neighbour by hedges to keep the livestock within the rigg and to delineate each person's property.

In most towns these riggs have been built upon over time and have disappeared, but Cumbernauld Village is very fortunate to have 15 riggs intact. The local community has taken steps to ensure they remain both as a historical record and as a future community resource as allotments, etc.

The well in the photograph is capped and marked by a modern plinth.