Scots Ell

Scotland’s standard ell, running to about 37 inches, and the unit from which the fall, mile and acre were all derived.

Three ells were in use across these islands and the Low Countries, and none agreed: the English at 45 inches, the Scots at 37 and the Flemish at 27. For cloth merchants trading across borders this was a permanent hazard, and contracts routinely specified which ell was meant. The Scots ell mattered beyond drapery, however, because unlike the English one it underpinned the whole national system of land measurement: six ells made a fall, and everything above the fall followed from there. The physical standard was held by the burgh of Edinburgh. Scotland adopted English measures at the Union of 1707, but the ell outlived the legislation in ordinary speech.