Metes and Bounds: How to Read a Legal Description

Metes and bounds is a way of describing land by tracing its boundary. The description starts at a fixed point of beginning. It then gives the direction and length of each line, names the monuments and neighbors the lines run to, and returns to the start. Deeds use it for parcels that are not lots on a recorded plat.

Pillar, a land research software company, wrote this guide. Each statute, rule and standard below links to its source, and we checked them on November 12, 2026. Boundary law differs by state, so the state rules here are examples, not national rules. This is general information; confirm anything that affects a purchase with a licensed surveyor or real estate attorney in your state.

What is metes and bounds?

A metes and bounds description is a written walk around the parcel. Most guides explain "metes" as the measurements (direction and distance) and "bounds" as the boundaries the lines follow or end at, such as a road, a creek or a neighbor's line. A good description gives both.

The federal Specifications for Descriptions of Land, from the Bureau of Land Management's cadastral survey staff and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (revised 2013), splits a description into three parts. We call it the BLM guidance below.

• Caption. The general location: county and state, and often the section, township and range, or the subdivision.
• Body. The boundary. It can include a point of commencement, a point of beginning, bearings, distances, calls to monuments and adjoining land, a closing call, the area and the basis of bearings.
• Clauses. Exceptions, reservations, easements and "subject to" language that take away, add or limit rights.

Terms you will see in most descriptions:

• Point of beginning (POB). The corner where the boundary starts and ends.
• Point of commencement. A known point, such as a road intersection or section corner, used only to reach the POB. Lines from it to the POB are not part of the boundary.
• Call. One instruction, such as a bearing and distance, or "to an iron pipe."
• Monument. A physical marker. The BLM guidance says it can be natural, "such as a river, lake, rock ledge, tree or ridge," or artificial, "such as a wall, fence, ditch, road, marked stone or post."

How to read a metes and bounds description

The sample below is invented for this guide. It does not describe a real parcel.

COMMENCING at the intersection of the northeasterly line of Mill Creek
Road with the easterly line of Sawyer Lane; thence along the
northeasterly line of Mill Creek Road S 46°47' E, 412.00 feet to an
iron pipe found, the POINT OF BEGINNING;

(1) thence along the line of the land now or formerly of R. Hale,
    N 45°30' E, 210.00 feet to an iron pin set;
(2) thence S 52°15' E, 318.40 feet to a stone found;
(3) thence S 41°40' W, 240.15 feet to a point on the northeasterly
    line of Mill Creek Road;
(4) thence along said road line N 46°47' W, 331.50 feet to the
    POINT OF BEGINNING, containing 1.75 acres, more or less.

Find the point of beginning

Start at the road intersection and go 412.00 feet along the road to the iron pipe. That pipe is the point of beginning. The commencing line only tells you how to find it.

Read each bearing

A quadrant bearing has three parts: N or S, an angle, and E or W. To read "N 45°30' E, 210.00 feet":

1. Face north.
2. Turn 45 degrees 30 minutes toward east. A degree has 60 minutes, so this is 45½ degrees, just past northeast.
3. Walk 210.00 feet.

The angle never exceeds 90 degrees, because it always starts from north or south. "S 52°15' E" means face south and turn 52°15' toward east. Some bearings add seconds (N 45°30'15" E); a minute has 60 seconds.

Every line has two bearings, one for each direction you can walk it. Walked backward, call (1) is S 45°30' W: swap N and S, swap E and W, keep the angle. That is why you read the calls in order.

Older deeds may use chains, rods or poles. NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C, lists a chain as 66 feet and a rod, pole or perch as 16.5 feet.

Read the monuments, the bounds and "more or less"

Call (1) runs "along the line of the land now or formerly of R. Hale." That is a bound: a line shared with a neighbor. "Now or formerly" identifies the adjoining land by a current or former owner's name.

"Iron pipe found" means a surveyor found an existing marker. "Iron pin set" means one was placed. Call (3) ends at "a point," with no marker. The BLM guidance prefers these words spelled out, since "IP" could mean iron pipe or iron pin.

The last line states "1.75 acres, more or less." The BLM guidance says approximate areas "should be indicated as such." As you will see, the stated area is the weakest part of a description.

Check that the description closes

A description closes when its lines, drawn in order, end exactly at the point of beginning. You can check it with a calculator. Split each line into north-south and east-west movement, with north and east positive:

• North-south = distance × cos(angle)
• East-west = distance × sin(angle)

For the four calls:

1. N 45°30' E, 210.00: 210.00 × 0.70091 = +147.19; 210.00 × 0.71325 = +149.78
2. S 52°15' E, 318.40: 318.40 × 0.61222 = −194.93; 318.40 × 0.79069 = +251.76
3. S 41°40' W, 240.15: 240.15 × 0.74703 = −179.40; 240.15 × 0.66480 = −159.65
4. N 46°47' W, 331.50: 331.50 × 0.68476 = +227.00; 331.50 × 0.72877 = −241.59

North-south total: 147.19 − 194.93 − 179.40 + 227.00 = −0.14 foot. East-west total: 149.78 + 251.76 − 159.65 − 241.59 = +0.30 foot.

A perfect description totals zero in both. This one ends 0.14 foot south and 0.30 foot east of its start. The straight-line gap is the error of closure: √(0.14² + 0.30²) = √0.1096 = 0.33 foot, about 4 inches. The perimeter is 1,100.05 feet, and 1,100.05 ÷ 0.33 is about 3,300, so the description closes to about 1 part in 3,300.

For scale, North Carolina's surveying board requires boundary surveys of rural land to close to 1 foot per 5,000 feet of perimeter, and urban surveys to 1 in 10,000, unless the surveyor uses the rule's positional accuracy option. That rule covers field work, not old deed arithmetic, but it shows the scale surveyors work to.

Rounding explains small gaps. One minute of angle moves the end of a 330-foot line about 0.1 foot (330 × tan 1' ≈ 0.096). A large gap means the text has an error:

• Mistype call (2) as "S 52°15' W" and the figure misses its start by about 503 feet.
• Swap two digits in call (4), 313.50 instead of 331.50, and it misses by about 18.31 feet.

Compute the area

Running totals of those movements give each corner a coordinate, with the point of beginning at 0, 0:

• Point of beginning: 0.00 N, 0.00 E
• Iron pin: 147.19 N, 149.78 E
• Stone: −47.74 N, 401.54 E
• Road point: −227.14 N, 241.89 E

The coordinate (shoelace) formula works around the corners in pairs: the first corner's east value times the second's north value, minus the second's east value times the first's north value. Pairs that include the point of beginning are zero. The other two:

• Iron pin to stone: (149.78 × −47.74) − (401.54 × 147.19) = −7,150.50 − 59,102.67 = −66,253.17
• Stone to road point: (401.54 × −227.14) − (241.89 × −47.74) = −91,205.80 + 11,547.83 = −79,657.97

The total is −145,911.14. Half of it, ignoring the sign, is 72,955.57 square feet, or 1.67 acres at 43,560 square feet per acre. Two triangles drawn from the point of beginning give the same answer, within rounding.

The deed says 1.75 acres, which is 76,230 square feet. The calls describe about 3,274 square feet (0.08 acre) less. Under the rules below, bearings and distances generally beat the stated acreage, so a buyer paying by the acre needs to know which figure sets the price.

Metes and bounds vs lot and block vs township and range

US deeds use three main systems, and many mix them.

Metes and bounds traces the boundary. It fits any shape.

Lot and block points to a recorded subdivision plat, as in "Lot 14, Block 3, Cedar Ridge, according to the plat recorded in Plat Book 12, Page 45." The plat already shows each lot's lines. The BLM guidance says parcels "may be described by lot and block numbers" of a subdivision "based upon a properly identified plat duly recorded in a public office of record." The 2026 ALTA/NSPS survey standard says surveyors should generally avoid writing a new description for a platted lot or block.

The Public Land Survey System (PLSS), or township and range, divides land into a grid. NIST Handbook 44 lists a township as about 6 miles square and a section as about 1 mile square. "The NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 12, Township 4 North, Range 3 West" names a block in that grid. The BLM's 2024 Public Land Statistics says Congress adopted the survey system by ordinance in 1785. It lists 30 "public land states": Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The BLM guidance says the rectangular system was used in those states.

The other 20 are the original 13 states plus Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Texas and Hawaii. They fall outside BLM's list of public land states. As a general guide, expect metes and bounds for unplatted tracts there; that is our reading of practice, not a BLM finding. The Texas grant in the 1885 Supreme Court case below was described by corners and distances in varas. PLSS states use metes and bounds too: the BLM guidance says it describes parcels that depart from the grid, such as part of a quarter section.

When calls conflict, which one controls?

Sometimes the parts of a description disagree. A monument may sit 6 feet from where the distance puts the corner. Statutes and courts rank the kinds of calls to decide which to follow. In general, monuments beat measurements and stated area comes last, but the order differs by state.

Texas. The General Land Office's surveying rule sets the order of dignity of calls: natural objects (rivers and the like), then artificial objects (marked trees, stone mounds, adjoinder calls), then courses, then distances, then acreage. Effective January 1, 1976. In Ayers v. Watson (1885), a dispute over a Texas grant, the US Supreme Court wrote that Texas courts had repeatedly held "that natural objects called for in a grant, such as mountains, lakes, rivers, creeks, rocks, and the like, control artificial objects, such as marked lines, trees, stakes, etc., and that the latter control courses and distances." It also cited the rule "that course controls distance, and that course and distance control quantity." Courses and distances may still control in exceptional cases, the Court said, such as a surveyor's mistake about the objects called for, monument calls that "cannot be reconciled," or "some other clearly sufficient reason."

California and Montana. The two states have matching statutes that apply only "when the construction is doubtful and there are no other sufficient circumstances to determine it." Under both, "permanent and visible or ascertained boundaries or monuments" are paramount when they are inconsistent with "the measurement, either of lines, angles, or surfaces." Between measurements, "that of angles is paramount to that of surfaces, and that of lines paramount to both." (California Code of Civil Procedure § 2077; Montana Code § 70-20-201, 2025.)

Note the difference: Texas ranks the bearing above the distance, while the California and Montana statutes rank distances (lines) above angles. All three put area last. None of these rankings replaces the evidence. In Ayers, the trial judge told the jury its duty was "to follow the tracks of the surveyor," and the Supreme Court found that charge sufficient. Ask a surveyor or attorney which order applies where your land is.

Common metes and bounds problems for a buyer

Lost or moved monuments. Stakes rot, trees are cut and fences move. A surveyor looks for the original markers and other evidence of where the first surveyor put the corners. In California, a licensed surveyor or civil engineer whose field survey finds a material discrepancy with a recorded map, or sets points not shown on one, must file a record of survey with the county surveyor within 90 days after boundary monuments are set or the field survey is completed, whichever happens first. Delays beyond the surveyor's control extend that period, but the surveyor must send the county surveyor a letter before the 90 days run out. Other states have their own filing rules.

Old magnetic bearings. Many old deeds were run with a compass. NOAA says magnetic declination, the angle between magnetic north and true north, "changes over time and with location." An 1880 compass bearing may not match today's true or grid bearing for the same line. NOAA's historic declination calculator estimates past values for the lower 48 states, "usually only accurate to within 30 minutes." The ALTA/NSPS standard requires the survey to state its basis of bearings and any difference from the record basis.

"More or less" acreage. Stated area ranks last in the rules above, and title insurance may not cover it either. A 2024 Stewart Title commitment posted by the City of Lacey, Washington, excepts "discrepancies, conflicts in boundary lines or shortages in area" that "would be disclosed by an accurate and complete and current survey of the Land" unless cleared to the company's satisfaction. Our guide to deeded acres vs. GIS acres explains why the deed and the county map can disagree.

Gaps and overlaps. Neighbors' deeds written at different times can leave a strip nobody owns on paper, or two claims to the same strip. The 2026 ALTA/NSPS standard requires the survey to show the relationship to adjoining properties ("contiguity, gaps, overlaps") where documents or field evidence reveal it, and to disclose any gap or overlap found to the insurer and client. In an assemblage, every seam between deeds is a place to look.

Descriptions that do not close. A large misclosure points to a typo, a missing call or a wrong quadrant. The ALTA/NSPS standard requires "a note if the record description does not mathematically close." Under California's statute, indefinite or false details added to definite ones do not "frustrate the conveyance." Either way, raise it with the surveyor and title company before closing.

How to plot a metes and bounds description yourself

Plotting a deed is a quick check that the description makes sense.

1. Enter the calls in a deed plotting program, the traverse tool in CAD or GIS software, or on graph paper with a protractor. Esri's ArcGIS Pro, for example, takes straight lines as a bearing and a distance.
2. Use the commencing lines to place the POB, but leave them out of the boundary.
3. Check closure and area against the stated acreage.
4. Line the shape up on an aerial photo using a feature the description ties to, such as a road intersection. Compare its shape, frontage and corners with the county parcel outline.
5. Measure what you see. Our free acreage calculator traces an outline on aerial imagery and compares its area with deeded and GIS figures.

A plotted deed shows the shape the words describe, not where it sits on the ground. Its position depends on how well you placed the point of beginning, and an old bearing may be rotated from today's north. Locating the boundary is a surveyor's job. California, for example, defines land surveying to include anyone who "locates, relocates, establishes, reestablishes, or retraces any property line or boundary of any parcel of land" (Business and Professions Code § 8726).

Metes and bounds when you are buying land

For a land buyer or builder, the description decides what you are buying, how much road frontage comes with it and whether the lot count works.

Where the description lives

• The vesting deed, which conveyed the land to the current owner. Earlier deeds in the chain may describe it differently.
• The title commitment. On the 2021 ALTA form, Item 5 of Schedule A reads "The Land is described as follows:" Check that it matches the deed, including any "less and except" clauses.
• The survey. An ALTA/NSPS survey shows the current record description; an original survey may instead identify the parent tract's record document number. Except for an original survey, a new description must come with a note saying whether it describes the same real estate and, if not, how it differs. Our ALTA survey guide covers what to order.

Compare the deed, the county map and the survey

Butler County, Pennsylvania, says its parcel viewer combines mapping and assessment and "is not to be used for legal, engineering or surveying purposes." It adds: "According to PA law, the legal description for a property boundary is the property deed." The viewer also lists each parcel's deed instrument ID, which leads you to the deed.

Before an offer:

1. Pull the vesting deed using the instrument or book and page number from the assessor or recorder.
2. Plot it and note the closure and computed area.
3. Lay the plot over the county parcel outline and note differences in frontage, corners and area. If you found the parcel from an address, check the match with our address vs. parcel guide.
4. Read the road calls. A line along a road's right-of-way and one along its centerline sit in different places; the BLM guidance says descriptions should specify which. Neither proves access, which our road frontage vs. legal access checklist covers.
5. Give the deed, your plot and your notes to the surveyor, and ask that each difference be resolved on the survey.

A small mismatch is common. It matters when the price is per acre, when the land sits near a minimum lot size, frontage or density limit, when a line may cross a neighbor's fence or building, when the description does not close, or when several deeds are being combined.

Pillar's property search shows a parcel's county record, including acreage, on a map with zoning, floodplain and other layers. That is the county side of the comparison; the deed and the survey are the other two.

Quick answers

What is metes and bounds in simple terms? A written description of a parcel's boundary that starts at one corner, gives the direction and length of each line, and returns to the start.

What is the difference between metes and bounds? Metes are usually the measurements: each line's bearing and distance. Bounds are what the lines follow or run to, such as roads, streams, monuments and neighbors' land.

What should I look for in a metes and bounds description? Find the point of beginning, follow each boundary call (bearings, distances, monuments and adjoining boundaries) and see how it returns to the start. Many add a point of commencement, the area and the basis of bearings. Whether a description is legally sufficient depends on its wording and state law.

Is metes and bounds still used? Yes. It is commonly used outside platted subdivisions in the 20 states without the Public Land Survey System, and PLSS states use it for parcels that do not follow the grid.

Is a parcel number the same as a legal description? No. A parcel number is a tax ID. The legal description is in the deed.

What does "more or less" mean in a legal description? It marks the stated acreage as approximate. When calls conflict, area generally ranks below monuments, bearings and distances.

Can I plot my own deed? Yes, as a check. It shows the described shape. Locating the boundary on the ground takes a licensed surveyor.