Dunicher Law
Dunicher Law KCQ R NO450082 1 374 230m
Dunlekirlaw 1428 SAUL B13/22/3 [o.c.; translation Home 1882 no. 3]
Dun-eker-law 1654 Blaeu 1654 (2006), Index, 227 [Robert Gordon’s text; wrongly given in translation p. 83 as ‘Dunnikier Law’]
Duneneker Law 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Duninickerla 1684 Adair/East Fife
Dunniker Law 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1
Dunniker Law 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Dunniker Law 1827 Ainslie/East Fife
Duncra Law 1850s OS Name Book 18, 36 [see discussion]
Dunikier Law 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Dunicher Law 1895 OS 6 inch County Series, 1st revision
en Dunicher + Sc law
The existing name appears to contain G dùn + ? an + ? G *cair, ‘hill or hill-fort of the fort’, the same elements as Dunnikier KDT (PNF 1). Whatever the derivation, the earliest form Dunlekirlaw (1428) requires some explanation, the most likely of which is that it is an intrusive l anticipating the l in law. There are some remains in the trees on the summit, including possible drystone ramparts, which could well be those of a hill-fort (NMRS NO40NW 40). OS Name Book reported that ‘there was a circular building like a round tower built without mortar of any kind, which is now fallen down, and become a heap of stones on which the Trig. Station is placed’ (18, 36). It also states that the Trig. there is called Duncra Law (loc. cit.), giving some indication of how it was pronounced at this time, at least by the OS sappers, with stress on the initial syllable.
The hill is first mentioned (in 1428) as part of the eastern boundary of the trading liberty of the burgh of Cupar. Locally the hill is sometimes called the ‘Necker Law’.
/ˈdʌnɪkər lɔ:/,[173] /ˈnɛkər lɔ:/[174] or /duˈnɪkər lɔ:/.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3