Barns Law
Barns Law KBS CRA R NO588111 1 363 65m
Barns Law 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Sc barns + Sc law
‘Hill of the barn(s)’, the barn(s) in question being the same as that which gave rise to the name Kingsbarns q.v. This is one of several law-names in this part of north-east Fife (discussed in more detail under Kippo KBS) in which the element law refers to a singularly unspectacular rising of the ground. OS Name Book calls it merely ‘a considerable eminence on the farm of Kippo, cultivated to the summit’ (64, 60).
The hill-name Barns Law has given its name to another OS Pathf. feature, Barns Law (also spelled as two words), c.1 km to the north-east, near the main road south of Kingsbarns village, at NO593116. This is in fact a wireless station (as reflected in the name of the field in which it stands, Wireless Enclosure, and in the name of the next field south, Wireless Field, Cambo Farm Plan). There is nothing marked here on OS 6 inch 1st edn.
About 800 m north of Kingsbarns, Ainslie/East Fife (1827) shows Barnslaw Tower, beside the road from Kingsbarns to Pitmilly, on the sea-side of the road. This appears simply as Barnslaw on SGF (1828), which also refers to a tower, as indicated by the accompanying symbol. OS 6 inch (1855) also shows a tower which it calls Law Tower, and the rising ground around it as Kingsbarns Law, but it shows it at NO591127, about 600 m south-east of Ainslie/East Fife Barnslaw Tower, SGF Barnslaw. The tower on the OS map is one of two identified by OS Name Book as erected as landmarks for fishermen at sea, and stands by a small house also called Kingsbarns Law (64, 39 and 42). OS Pathf. still shows Kingsbarns Law at this site, but does not indicate a tower. It is likely that the tower shown on Ainslie/East Fife and SGF is the other one of the two mentioned in OS Name Book.
OS Pathf. also shows a ‘settlement’ called Barnslaw, c.1 km north-east of the hill of that name.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3