Fall (Scots Rod)
Modern equivalent
Approx. 6.2 yards = 5.67 metres
The Scots counterpart of the English rod, being six Scots ells, and the building block of both the Scots mile and the Scots acre.
The fall was to Scottish surveying what the rod, pole or perch was to English: the working unit from which larger measures were assembled. Forty falls made a Scots furlong and 320 made the Scots mile, while four falls square gave a Scots rood. Because the Scots ell was longer than the English yard, everything built upon it came out proportionally larger, which is why the Scots mile exceeded the English one by more than two hundred yards. The Parliament of Scotland moved to the English standard in 1685, but the fall persisted in Scottish land records for a good deal longer.