Skip to main content

Ordnance Survey - Fife and Kinross counties, OS Name Books - Fife and Kinross county - Volume 8 - Parishes of Auchterderran, Ballingry, Kinglassie and Portmoak, OS1/13/8

Continued entries/extra info

page 30a [attachment]

The following remarks are relative to the "Hare Stanes" "Heaer Cairns" "Herlaw or Harelaw". Extracted from The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland page 92,3.

"Mr William Hamper, an ingenious English antiquary, has elaborately elucidated the derivation of the name as applied in England, and the use of the Hoar stones, the Menhars, or bound stones, as Stones of memorial, like, the stone Bohan, the son of Reuben, and other ancient land marks of Bible Story. Probably we shall justly esteem the "Hare Stane" as the memorial of the Western boundary of the ancient chase, claimed from time immemorial by the neighbouring capital; but if so, its name has long survived all popular recollection of the meaning which it bore. The same term Hare Stanes, is applied to a circular group of stones near Kirkdean, in the parish of Kirkurd, Peebleshire. It would appear, however, to have been more frequently used in Scotland in the most sacred sense of a memorial, if we judge from the examples of its application as the designation of Cairns, some of which, at least, and probably all, are sepulchral monuments. Among these are the Haer Cairns in the parish of Chinee; the Haer Cairns of Blairgowrie and Kinloch, Perthshire; the Hier Cairns of Monikie Forfarshire; The Herlaw, a gigantic Cairn in the parish of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire; the more celebrated Harlaw of Aberdeenshire; and the Harelaw at Lochore in Fifeshire."

Ordnance Survey - Fife and Kinross counties, OS Name Books - Fife and Kinross county - Volume 8 - Parishes of Auchterderran, Ballingry, Kinglassie and Portmoak, OS1/13/8

This volume contains information on the place names found in the parishes of Auchterderran, Ballingry, Kinglassie, and Portmoak.

Ordnance Survey - Fife and Kinross counties

Ordnance Survey was established in the 18th century to create maps, surveys and associated records for the entirety of Great Britain. These records are arranged by county. This entry has been created to enable searching for Ordnance Survey records for the counties of Fife in the east of Scotland and Kinross in central Scotland. The boundaries of these counties were altered by the Boundary Commissioners in 1891.

View more volumes for Ordnance Survey - Fife and Kinross counties