backdam

A dam that lies to the rear of something.

Two side dams are likewise thrown up, and extend as far as the cultivation, where they join a back dam; so that an estate is a complete island within itself, and dammed on all sides.

[...] I, by these presents, sell, alienate, and in feu-farm dispone from me, my heirs and successors, to and in favour of James Boog, [...] that small piece of ground at Canonmills, on which eight lime pits are built, lying betwixt the foredam and the backdam, on a narrow point, [...]

A region of rural, undeveloped land, especially on the outskirts of a farm.

The cows are kept in stables erected in small yards, and are fed with concentrates and cut grass, obtained from the back[-]dams of estates.

"An hour" to King George was plainly only an indeterminate period of time, for if we asked him how long it would take to walk from the river-bank to a village in the "back[-]dam", he nearly always replied, "Eh, man! 'Bout one hour!" The unit of an hour was never divided or multiplied and "one hour" turned out to be ten minutes on one occasion and two and a half hours on another.