[Tammy Norries, the cattle herd on Balmain] not only suffered instantaneous death, but by a supernatural influence his body was prevented receiving ordinary burial! For it is stated that, being found at his post and standing upright, it was found impossible (in accordance with announcement of the ghostly warder) to remove the body from the spot to which it appeared to be rooted!
With the inventive genius for which the natives of Scotland, and more particuarly the inhabitants of the district, are remarkable, an uncommon mode of burial to suit the uncommon obstinacy and unbending disposition of the subject was adopted, and a cairn of stones was erected round the body, which (namely a cairn of stones) undoubtedly remains until this day, and is known by the name of Norries’ Law.
The above ridiculous legend has laid claim to no small degree of credibility on the strength of an occurrence no farther back than sixty years ago! The farmer of the land on which Norries’ Law is situated having occasion for a quantity of stones to repair some fences, and actuated by the utilitarian principles which even then were spreading their poisonous scepticism through our land, took upon him to lay his sacrilegious hands upon the aforesaid mysterious cairn, and to make it available for his vile purpose. But, lo! a superior power steps in to put a stop to the impious act! Mr Durham’s steward appears, with anger on his countenance and a message from the laird on his lips, requesting the said farmer to desist from removing, and to restore the stones already removed to their places.
It was at this important epoch of this memorable history that the cairn was discovered to be not a solid mass of stones, but to have enclosed something, and what more likely than the body of a human being? The fact of a few bones and other substances being found there and thereabouts was looked upon by the simple natives as giving confirmation strong to the aforegoing romantic tale; and were this not an age of scoffers and sceptics, we would not have taken the trouble to refresh the minds of the public with a story which, although some may consider it stale, is as good as most others of the same sort.
Fife Herald, 21st December 1843.