I don’t think it’s wholly stupid of me to think he was referring to this place?
The belief in fairies was once common all over the country. That interesting race seems to have died out in this part of the country. At least in all my wanderings I have never seen a fairy or spoken to any person who had seen one. Though I have conversed with one very old woman, who died about 40 years ago, upon the subject, and remember having listened with amusement, not unmixed with awe, to the wonderful tales she told us of encounters some of her early acquaintances had had with the green-coated fraternity.
But, if we have no fairies, we have still some of the relics of them. On the occasion of our late visit to Deskford, Mr Cramond pointed out to me a clump of trees, which contained a ‘fairy hillock.’ We did not stop to examine it; but, I suppose, it resembles those green round mounds, which are rather common in this part of the country, and of which I intend to have something to say on some future occasion.
He then goes on to tell a tale of fairies in a hillock in the ‘lonely range of Gromack’: I see Grumack Hill is also in Moray.
From the Banffshire Journal, 17th May 1887.
Oooh interesting! I'm trying to remember if John Aitken's book 'Deskford a lower banffshire parish' mentions a fairy mound .. there isn't an entry in the index.
Not being Scottish I don't know what Ha' means, would it be hall? But this is me clutching at straws as I see the stream that goes past is the Ha' Burn.
Also I don't use the word 'hillock' very often so I thought it was significant that the name of 'Ha' Hillock' matches the word he used. (But maybe there are hillocks all over the place in Moray :)
I'm not local either but I do have access to the fine minds of the heritage society - unfortunately my brain hears information then discards it again unless I write it down immediately! When we discussed it, I think what they said was Ha' comes from Haw ie hawthorn and there was disagreement about whether the hillock named the burn or the burn named the hillock.
As you prob already know, William Cramond was an esteemed local historian, he wrote the Annals of Cullen 961-1904 (electricscotland.com/history/gazetteer/annalscullen.pdf). I'll let you know if I find something relevant in that.