Jougs

The jougs was an iron collar fastened by a short chain to a wall, often of the parish church, or to a tree or mercat cross. The collar was placed round the offender's neck and fastened by a padlock. Time spent in the jougs was intended to shame an offender publicly. Jougs were used for ecclesiastical as well as civil offences. Some surviving examples can still be seen in their original locations in Scottish towns and villages. Jougs may be the origin of the later slang word "jug", meaning prison.

Jougs hanging by the door on the weigh-house at Ceres, Fife

Sir Walter Scott rescued the jougs from Threave Castle in Kirkcudbrightshire and attached them to the castellated gateway he built at Abbotsford House.[1]

In Stewarton, East Ayrshire, the jougs were attached to the old bridge that crossed the burn and connected to the drive that ran up to Corsehill House.

The Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum in the Nith valley has jougs attached to the wall just outside the entrance to the old gaol.

The jougs at Sorn Kirk were stolen in the 1930s, but located and returned. Cuthbertson refers to the jougs as "symbols of the session's power against gossips and evil-doers".[2][3]

The jougs at Kilallan Kirk near Kilmacolm were stolen and by chance retrieved and donated to the local museum. A story is told of a lady of short stature who was placed in the jougs; however, she fell off the box and was strangled, as the chain was too short for her.[4]

The jougs on the Isle of Cumbrae survive, attached to a gatepost at the entrance to the Millport Old Cemetery.[5]

The "Clachan Oak" is an ancient sessile oak near Balfron in Stirlingshire. It can still be seen bearing metal bands around its trunk to which jougs were once attached for the restraint and humiliation of petty criminals.[6]

Mr. Carse of the Shawhill Estate protected a fine old thorn tree that grew at the Hurlford Bridge end by attaching a pair of jougs to it, made by David Brown the local blacksmith. These were never used, but acted as a deterrent to local children who might have harmed the tree.[7]

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  Jougs at Oxnam Parish Kirk, Scottish Borders
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  Jougs on the perimeter wall of Duddingston Kirk, near Edinburgh
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  Jougs at Stobo Kirk, Scottish Borders
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  Jougs attached to the tolbooth at Kilmaurs, Ayrshire
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  Jougs at Eckford Parish Kirk, Scottish Borders
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  Jougs at the entrance to the parish kirk in Abernethy, Perthshire
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  Jougs of South Leith Parish Church
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  Jougs attached to Kirkcudbright Tolbooth, Dumfriesshire

• Stool of Repentance
• Scold's bridle
• Shrew's fiddle

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jougs". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 523.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jougs.

• Video showing the Kilmaurs Jougs
• Video and narration about the Fenwick Jougs
• Bygone Punishments of Scotland by William Andrews 1899 on electricscotland.