Place lore is folklore centred around a place and its name, mostly presented as a story. It includes place legends and beliefs related to places, descriptions of customs, historical traditions, memories, etc.

The detailed survey plan created by Richard Viilepa for the 1938/1939 collection competition is titled ‘Collect Place Legends!’. However, its content largely corresponds to how place lore is currently addressed. In addition to the tales, it also includes mentions of memoirs, and the topic list also encompasses historical figures.

Place lore was also actively collected during the Soviet era, both during the expeditions of the Department of Folklore of the former Estonian Literary Museum and with the help of correspondents. Researchers showed more interest in the religious aspects of folk tales. Even in traditions that mention landscape elements, the geographical component of the place itself remained in the background.

Place lore is also part of the protection of cultural heritage in national parks.

In 2006, Rait Parts started storing place lore within the boundaries of Soomaa National Park and beautifully named it the description of memoryscapes. In the process, place names and stories about Vilsandi, Matsalu, Lahemaa, and Karula national parks were collected from locals and searched in archives. An additional project dedicated to the villages of Kuusalu rural municipality took place in Lahemaa National Park (2017–2019). Historians studied the history and traditions of 16 villages and compiled historical statements for these villages.

The site lore map application in the Land Board's geoportal contains traditional and visual information about the five aforementioned Estonian national parks and adjacent villages under the name of the memoryscapes map application. Here, at the marked locations, you can view photos and listen to audio clips; for some areas, there is also a selection of video clips. The project was implemented in cooperation between the Estonian Literary Museum, the Estonian Environmental Board, and the Land Board. 

In addition to heritage sites, cultural monuments, nature conservation, and heritage culture objects can be displayed simultaneously. Different types of modern or historical maps can be selected as a base map. According to plans, the application will be updated over time, both in terms of national parks and other Estonian areas. 

The national parks memoryscapes project was preceded by an earlier project, Radar, a digital Estonian base map enriched with cultural-historical information. Radar was initiated by a working group of the Department of Folkloristics at the Estonian Literary Museum, led by Tõnno Jonuks. The main source of Radar is folk tales. Such material is concentrated, for the most part, in the Estonian Literary Museum’s Estonian Folklore Archive and Estonian Cultural History Archive.