Dunum was a Latinized name of a place in ancient

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and the name of at least two recorded settlements there, one in the far north, one in the far south. The southerly settlement is attributed in ancient print as the original site or namesake of Rathdrum in County Wicklow. The northerly is attributed to the settlement of

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, which the Irish called Dunedh, and also Rath-keltar or Rath-Keltair, .The name originated from Keltair, son of Duach – ''Rath-'' meaning castle – and was quoted as that in the Will of Saint Patrick.

Overview

As a word, Dunum is very similar to words for fortifications and measurements, and sometimes used as a suffix or prefix in placenames to note the presence of fortification. It was a word for hill with ancient

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...

, and

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

. It is also a latinization of the word "

dun Dun most commonly refers to: *Dun gene, which produces a brownish-gray color (dun) in horses and other Equidae * Dun (fortification), an ancient or medieval fort Dun or DUN may also refer to: Places Scotland * Dun, Angus, a civil parish in ...

", separately evolved on the continent, but to the same meaning – a fortification or a hill – in several languages, particularly Gothic. As such, variations of this placename are one of the most commonly recurring naming group for places in Ireland and an identifiable feature in placenames both in Britain and throughout much of Europe. It is similar in meaning to the Old English ''dün'' meaning "down", "hill" or "mountain" and used in such English place names as Ashdown,

Bredon Bredon is a village and civil parish in Wychavon district at the southern edge of Worcestershire in England. It lies on the banks of the River Avon on the lower slopes of Bredon Hill. Location and geography Bredon is located northwest of the ...

and

Snowdon Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...

. Use of Dunum in placenames may indicate a Belgic origin for some of the tribes of Ireland. It was the name of the chief town of the

Cauci The Cauci (Καῦκοι) were a people of early Ireland, uniquely documented in Ptolemy's 2nd-century ''Geography'', which locates them roughly in the region of modern County Dublin and County Wicklow. Theories From the early 19th century, comp ...

, an early Irish tribe documented by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

in the second century, who may have been Belgic, and were related to the

Chauci The Chauci were an ancient Germanic tribe living in the low-lying region between the Rivers Ems and Elbe, on both sides of the Weser and ranging as far inland as the upper Weser. Along the coast they lived on artificial mounds called '' terpen'' ...

from what is now northern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

References

{{reflist, 33em, refs= {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vC82AAAAMAAJ&q=dunum+ancient+ireland&pg=PA340 , title=Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Volume 3 , first=Charles , last=Vallencey , year=1786 , publisher=Dublin: Luke White , isbn= , page=340 , quote=DUNUM, a city and capital of the Menapii mentioned by Ptolemy; it was seat of the chiefs of Cuolan, and called by the Irish Rathdruim. It is still remaining and gives name to the adjacent town of Rathdrum in the county of Wicklow. {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vC82AAAAMAAJ&q=dunum+ancient+ireland&pg=PA340 , title=Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Volume 3 , first=Charles , last=Vallencey , year=1786 , publisher=Dublin: Luke White , isbn= , page=340 , quote=DUNUM, an ancient city or fortress in the north of Ireland, mentioned by Ptolemy, and called by the Irish writers ''Dunedh'' and ''Rath-keltar'', it was situated near Downpatrick. {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vC82AAAAMAAJ&q=dunum+ancient+ireland&pg=PA340 , title=Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Volume 3 , first=Charles , last=Vallencey , year=1786 , publisher=Dublin: Luke White , isbn= , page=335 , quote=DONUM, or Dunum, an ancient city mentioned by Ptolemy, and thought by Cambden and some others to de the present city of Down, from the dun or fort near it, and formerly the residence of the chieftains of the country; but a number of the ancient Irish raths or castles were named Dons, Duns and Dins. {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_UnAQAAIAAJ&q=dunum&pg=PA202 , title=A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain & Ireland, Volume 3 , first=Robert , last=Beatson , year=1806 , publisher=London:Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-row. , isbn= , page= , quote=''Dunum'' (Downe) was anciently called ''Aras Celtair'', as also ''Rath Keltair'', in much the same sense; the one signifying the house, and the other the castle or fortification of Celtair, the son of Duach; from whence Flaherty, out of a quotation from the Will of Saint Patrick, calls it Rath Keltair Macduach, or the Castle of Keltair, the son of duach. It took the name of Downe from its situation on a hill. For ''Dunum'', among ancient Gauls, Britons, and Saxons, denoted a hill or rising situation; nor hath ''Dunum'' any other signification among the Irish. {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9olFAAAAcAAJ&q=Chalmers&pg=PA10 , title=Dr Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, and Supplement. In four volumes. Vol. 1. , first=John , last=Jamieson , year=1841 , publisher=Edinburgh: William Tate , isbn= , page=xx , quote=As the names of many Belgic towns end in ''Dun'' or ''Dinum'', Mr. Chalmers attempts to show that the Belgae must have been Celts, because "''Dunum'' and ''Dinum'' are the latinized form of ''Dun'' and ''Din'', which, in the British and Irish, ''as well as in the ancient gothic'', signify a fortified place;" ''(and further two paragraphs)'' {{cite book , title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names , last=Ekwall , first=Eilert , year=1960 , publisher=Oxford University Press , page=153 {{cite web, url=http://www.roman-britain.org/tribes/brigantes.htm , title=The Celtic Tribes of Britain (Tees Bay) , date=18 July 2024 , publisher=Roman Britain Organisation , quote=Dunum Sinus (Tees Bay) between modern Hartlepool and Redcar. The name may be translated as 'The Bay of the Fortification' but it is uncertain as to which fortified settlement is meant. {{cite web, url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/mlcr/mlcr01.htm , title=Chapter I: The Celts in Ancient History - Celtic Place-names in Europe , publisher=Internet Sacred Text Archive {{cite book , url=https://archive.org/details/celticaisprachli00dief , title=Celtica I. sprachliche Documente zur Geschichte der Kelten; zugleich als Beitrag zur Sprachforschung überhaupt , first=Lorenz , last=Diefenbach , year=1839 , publisher=Stuttgart, Drud und Berlag von Imle & Liefching , isbn= , page= , quote= , language=de Historical geography of Ireland

Overview

Further reading

References