Heck, a village in Lochmaben parish, Dumfriesshire, 23/8 miles SSE of Lochmaben town, and 3½ WSW of Lockerbie. One of the villages called the Four Towns, it stands on a rising-ground, the Hill of Heck; and sometimes, during a freshet of the river Annan, is completely begirt with water, so as to look like an island in a lake, and to be approachable only by means of a boat. It got its name, signifying ' a rack for feeding cattle,' from its being made, in times of freshets, a retreat of cattle driven from their ordinary pasture on the haugh to be fed from racks on its rising-ground.Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.
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