"SMOOT-HOLE", "SMOUT HOLE" - a gap built into the base of a dry-stone wall to allow free passage of hares, rabbits & other small animals - but not sheep - between fields & fell. Smouts were sometimes used for trapping.
The word derives from "smeuse," which is a hole in a thick hedge made by the repeated movement of small animals, and which is itself derived from the various Nordic (read Viking) words for hole and creep (smyga, smutte, smatta, smuthul).
Larger holes, that would allow sheep or pigs to move from one field to another, but keep cattle and horses penned, were called "Hog Holes" or Sheep Holes" or "cripples".
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"Sheep Creep" is another term for a small, low hole in a wall for sheep. yet too small for cattle or horses. See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_creep
Here is quote from coincidental recent email to me from good friend in UK: "Narrow gateways that only allowed the passage of animals (no wagons). Small holes were left in walls to allow yearling sheep to pass from field to field whilst older sheep could not. These holes are called 'hogge holes' here in the north as a hogge is a yearling sheep. In the south, where I grew up, the holes are called 'sheep creeps'. They can be closed by a slab of rock ... Large gate posts were made from split rock slabs called 'stoops' but modern farmers just use a wooden post. The oldest stoops have holes cut into them (rare to find now) to allow stout wooden poles to be placed across the gateway to prevent cattle passing, as hinged gates were not used until the late 18th C. Otherwise, brushwood bundles and hurdles were used to close gateways to sheep. There are also 'water gates' in walls to allow small streams through, and in some places small holes were left for rabbits to pass. Stiles to allow people, but not sheep, to cross walls also are constructed in vernacular styles. All very interesting, but so much is being lost or is not recorded!"
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