Norman’s Law
Norman’s Law DBG ABE R NO305202 1 362 285m
Hil of <D>enmoir 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B [D of Denmoir almost illegible]
Normands Law 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Benmoir 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife [for Denmoir]
Normanslaw M. 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [M for Latin Mons ‘hill, mountain’]
Normans Law 1703 Adair/Sea-Coast (Tay)
Normands hill 1753 Roy
Normanslaw Ainslie 1775 /Fife
Norman’s Law 1790s OSA 462
Normans Law 1794 inscription on stone [at Shanwell FPC, q.v., below]
Norman Law 1840 Leighton 1840 ii, 151
Norman’s Law 1845 NSA ix, 49
Norman’s Law 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
pn Norman + Sc law
‘Hill associated with Norman or the Norsemen’. The highest hill in north Fife (285 m), it has a large, well-preserved Iron Age fort on the summit (NMRS NO32SW 22). It was named dùn or dùnadh + mòr by Gaelic-speakers, a name which by c.1200 was used to refer to the estate on its southern and western slopes (now Denmuir, for which see above). The name ‘Norman’s Law’ appears to have arisen some time in the early seventeenth century, and may well be a result of the antiquarian association of the hill-fort with the Norse, as expressed by the Rev. Mr Gourlay in the 1790s OSA under Flisk parish: ‘There is a very large hill, called Norman’s Law, which rises from the level of the Tay, upon two eminences, one above the other .... The common opinion as to the origin of the name Norman is that the Norwegians in their piratical incursions did, for some time, encamp upon this hill. This traditional account is favoured by the appearance of an intrenchment round the summit’ (OSA, 380).
In the light of the Pont manuscript fragment, the form Benmoir, which appears in Blaeu’s printed version, is most likely a misprint for Denmoir.
/'nɔrmənz lɔ:/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4