Explore the real-world places that appear in The Haar by David Sodergren. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Pittenweem Harbour (Witchaven Harbour), Pittenweem High Street and Mid Shore, Great Tolbooth Tower, St Fillan's Cave, Pittenweem Priory and 6 more.
Harbour Place, Pittenweem — the working heart of the fictional village
Witchaven is the Scottish fishing village where Muriel McAuley was born and intends to die. The harbour stands for the way of life threatened when an overseas property developer plans to evict the residents and raze the village. It is also the natural place for the mysterious fog bank, the haar, to be seen rolling in from the sea. The location is a real-world stand-in, since the book's village is fictional.
Pittenweem's harbour has served the East Neuk fishing fleet for centuries, and its name derives from Pictish and Gaelic words meaning 'place of the caves'. It remains one of the busiest fishing harbours in Fife.
Pittenweem is still a working fishing port with a daily fish market, creel boats and harbourside cafes. Visitors can watch the boats land their catch and walk the harbour front.
Visit: Pittenweem Harbour (landmark)
High Street & Mid Shore — stand-in for Witchaven's homes under threat
The cottages and crow-stepped houses of Witchaven are the homes the developer's plan would bulldoze in the name of progress. Muriel McAuley and her neighbours have lived here for generations and have no intention of leaving. The story turns on whether the community can survive the eviction threat, and on what the haar does to those who come to destroy it. This street is a real-world analogue for the village's lanes and houses.
Pittenweem's old burgh is lined with 16th- to 18th-century merchant houses and fishermen's cottages, many restored by the National Trust for Scotland's Little Houses scheme. The town was a royal burgh from 1541.
The streets hold galleries, pubs, a chip shop and homes. Pittenweem hosts an arts festival each August, when many private houses open as galleries.
Visit: Pittenweem High Street (landmark)
High Street — the village's civic landmark and place of judgement
A village hall or civic tower like this serves as a gathering point for Witchaven's residents as the threat from the developer grows. It is where a close-knit community can argue, organise and decide how far it will go to save its homes. It stands in for the village's meeting place, since the book's setting is fictional.
The Tolbooth in Pittenweem dates to the 16th century, with its tower added in 1588. It served as town hall and prison, and in the 1704 witch persecutions Janet Cornfoot was held there.
The Tolbooth steeple still dominates the High Street and is a prominent local landmark. It is viewed from outside and is part of the town's heritage trail.
Visit: Pittenweem Tolbooth Tower (landmark)
Cove Wynd — a sacred cave beneath the village
The cave is the kind of place where Witchaven's folklore and the book's folk-horror atmosphere meet. Dark, damp and half-forgotten, it suggests the macabre secrets hidden within the haar. It is an analogue for the village's old and sinister places beneath ordinary life.
The cave is said to have been the hermitage of the 7th-century Irish monk St Fillan, and the priory above later used it as a shrine. It was rediscovered in 1935 and restored as a place of worship.
The cave is opened to visitors by key arrangement, and a small chapel sits inside. It is reached down a short lane off the High Street.
Visit: St Fillan's Cave (historic site)
Cove Wynd — medieval priory above the harbour
The old stone buildings of a medieval religious house stand for the long history behind Witchaven. The village's age makes it seem an organic part of the land that the developer wants to destroy. In a folk horror story, such ancient ground has a hold on the people who live there.
Pittenweem Priory was founded by Augustinians in the 12th century, a daughter house of the Isle of May. After the Reformation its remains became private houses and a guest house, and parts survive.
The remaining buildings, including a gatehouse and walled garden, are partly in private use. The grounds are glimpsed from the lane, and the nearby cave is the main public draw.
Marygate — church above the harbour
The village church and its graveyard stand for the community's long attachment to Witchaven, where Muriel intends to be buried. Her declaration that she does not fear death resonates in a place surrounded by the dead of past generations. This is a real-world analogue for the village's churchyard.
St Mary's Church in Pittenweem dates to the 16th century, with later alterations. Its churchyard overlooks the Firth of Forth.
It remains the parish church and is open for services and occasional events. The kirkyard is accessible from the street.
Pittenweem shore — site linked to the 1704 witch trial
The village's name, Witchaven, points to a history of witchcraft and persecution that the book plays with in its folk horror fairy tale. The real Pittenweem is the best analogue for that. The haar can be read as a force with its own judgement on the village's enemies.
In 1704 Janet Cornfoot was accused of witchcraft in Pittenweem and was killed by a mob on the shore after escaping imprisonment. It is one of the most notorious episodes in Scottish witch-hunting history.
A memorial to the persecuted women stands in the town, and the story is a part of local history. The shore is a public walk.
Visit: Pittenweem Shore Path (landmark)
St Monans — clifftop church beside the sea
A weathered church on the very edge of the sea is the sort of setting the book uses for the haar's coastal menace. It lies just west of the village and stands in for Witchaven's outlying landmarks. Fog from the North Sea rolling over such a site fits the story's mood.
The church was built in the 14th century, reputedly founded by King David II after he survived a storm at sea. It stands almost on the shoreline.
It is an active parish church open to visitors, with a notable model ship in the nave. The adjacent windmill and salt pans are also accessible.
Visit: St Monans Parish Church (historic site)
St Ayles, Harbourhead, Anstruther — heritage of the fishing communities
The way of life Witchaven's fishing families live is the world this museum records. The book's villagers are people of the sea, and their culture is the thing at stake when the developer plans to wipe out the village. The museum is a nearby real-world counterpart.
The Scottish Fisheries Museum opened in 1969 in a group of 16th- to 19th-century buildings by Anstruther Harbour. It holds historic boats, including the Reaper and the Research.
It is open to the public with galleries on boats, fishing communities and the herring industry. A harbourside cafe and boats afloat in the harbour are part of the visit.
Visit: Scottish Fisheries Museum (museum)
Near Arncroach — historic house inland from the coast
The countryside above the coast stands for the land beyond Witchaven where outside money and ambition come from. A grand old house is a fitting analogue for the old power structures that the developer would replace. The haar moves inland across such ground in the story.
Kellie Castle dates from the 14th century, with major additions in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was restored by the Lorimer family in the late 19th century and is now cared for by the National Trust for Scotland.
The castle and walled garden are open to the public, with a cafe and woodland walks. Its position gives views toward the Firth of Forth.
Visit: Kellie Castle & Gardens (historic site)
Seafront looking to the Firth of Forth — where the haar rolls in
The sea-front is where the fog bank would first appear, creeping from the water toward the village. The haar is the book's central force, bringing redemption to some and madness and death to others. It is a good analogue for the vantage from which Witchaven sees the mist coming.
The haar is a cold sea fog that regularly rolls onto Scotland's east coast in spring and summer. The Isle of May, visible offshore, has a lighthouse dating to 1816 and a long monastic history.
The shore at Pittenweem offers open views over the Firth of Forth, with the Isle of May often visible on clear days. Boat trips to the island leave from nearby Anstruther.
Visit: Pittenweem Seafront (park)
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