cascrom

plural cascroms · alternative caschrom

1. ScotlandHighlandsA type of foot plough with a crooked spade component, used in the Scottish Highlands.

   1866, The St. James's Magazine and United Empire Review, Volume 16: April—July, page 90, The other was the “cascrom,” a very old Celtic implement, intermediate between the spade and the plough.

   4 more examples

   1843, James Logan, The Scottish Gaël; Or, Celtic Manners: As Preserved Among the Highlanders, 1st American Edition, page 309, That excellent instrument the cascrom, literally crooked foot, a kind of foot plough, which the Highlanders can manage with great dexterity, and which is too little known,* is still used in mountainous districts, and, from its excellent adaptation to the culture of rugged and steep hills, where a plough cannot be used, is not likely ever to be superseded by any implement.

   And so complete was the carnage within the gloom of the corrie that never a man of the erewhile friendly crofters returned to work the cascrom within the township of Achnashee.

   1900, The Badminton Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 10, page 293

   The cascrom, or foot-plough, was at this time unknown in Arran.

   1982, W. M. MacKenzie, The Book of Arran: History and Folklore, page 200

   The ‘cascrom’, or crooked spade, was the most important tool for agriculture throughout the Western Isles and major parts of the mainland Highlands.

   2007, Martin Rackwitz, Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1800, page 298