Definition of "cowyard"

On entering the palace we were shown into a cowyard without a tree in it, or any shade; and no one was allowed to sell us food until a present of friendship was paid, after which the hongo would be discussed.

1864, John Hanning Speke, The Discovery of the Source of the Nile‎

Behind a cowyard of shattered stone pavement and cracked mud stood the farm itself, and around it extended the fields belonging thereto.

1898, Eden Phillpotts, Children of the Mist‎

There were no pigeons in the pigeon-house, and nothing but jack-daws; and so, after she had burned the beam, and the door-frame and the floor, she ran into the cowyard, through the small field, and fainted behind several pitchers of yeast.

1912, Walter W. Skeat, English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day‎