The Harbour Hills was once a barren hill that young romantic lovers in cars parked among and the place that people referred to in ghost stories.

Today the Harbour Hills have slowly been taken over by modern progress and has developed its own identity. From Happy Jacks Hill in Hussey's Cove to Liz Thums Hill is Bareneed, the Harbour Hill today is home to modern houses, businesses and the Pentecostal Church Complex.

Yet in spirit of the progress the Harbour Hills still maintains its nature barren rugged beauty and remains a rough-foot adventure for the avid hiker.

Bareneed: Located at the base of the Port de Grave peninsula, like some of the other towns in Newfoundland branded with a with "humorous" name, Bareneed, is often included in lists of such towns (e.g., see Steven Barnes' article "Dildo, and other Colourful Place Names of Newfoundland" referred to earlier).

Settled as far back as the early 1600s, the history behind its name is quite complex.

While the derivation of the town's name was briefly touched upon in the discussion of the communities that make up the Point de Greve peninsula, the following from the ENL shows that there is little consensus among scholars:there is considerable debate about the nomenclature of Bareneed.

The community is mentioned by William Thoresby in his A Narrative of God's Love to William Thoresby in the 1700s as Bareneed (E.R. Seary: 1971), and by Edward Wix in his Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal (1836?) as Bareneed.

M. F. Howley (1907) conjectured that with the broad "a" of the West Country dialect, the name Barren Head, (referring to a land feature) would be pronounced "bareneed " in Devonshire dialect.

Reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (S.P.G.) in 1851 stated that "The settlement of Bareneed... owes its name to the very barren nature and aspect of its locality and neighbourhood."

In the Nineteenth Century a tradition became current that the name Bareneed referred to the bleakness of the landscape and the poverty and difficulty of life in the community.

However, the history of this thriving fishing centre belies this conjecture and it has been vigorously refuted (C.E. Dawe: 1967).

According to E.R. Seary (1971), quoting M.F. Howley (1907), the name is derived from a mortgage deed registered in 1807 wherein the property in the deed bequeathed to the mortgagor in 1787 by Jacob Snow to John Snow, was referred to as Bearing Head.

Seary argues that it is a name "which seems to imply that the head was known at any rate as a local navigational mark to sailors in Bay De Grave."

absence of more citations and precise information on the earlier pronunciation of the name, Howley's conjecture that Bareneed derives from an unauthenticated descriptive. Barren Head cannot be completely ruled out" (E.R. Seary: 1971).

While Bareneed is not the largest community in the area, according to the 2016 census, there were slightly under 1000 citizens.

Saint John's, with a population of more than 115,000 is located about 24 miles [38 km] to the east of Bareneed.

Recently the Port de Grave Peninsula Heritage Society was able to obtain two important landmarks (for the grand sum of $1): the deconsecrated St. Mark's Anglican Church and the former St. Mark's School.

Both had been owned by the Diocesan Synod of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.

According to Robinson (2017) the plan is convert the 91-year old Church into a museum dedicated to maritime history, with extra space for lectures and performances. The school built in 1912 may be converted into an eatery of some type.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/HarbourHills