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Dun (from the Brythonic Din (modern Welsh Dinas) and Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic languages branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish language and Manx language languages....
 Dłn, meaning fort) is now used both as a generic term for a fort (mainly used to describe a sub-group of hill fort
Hill fort

A hill fort is type of fortification refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age and Iron Ages....
s) and also for a specific variety of Atlantic roundhouse
Atlantic roundhouse

In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides....
. In some areas they seem to have been built on any suitable crag
Crag

Crag may refer to:*A steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward or outward, especially a cliff or vertical rock exposure in the north of England or in Scotland...
 or hillock, particularly south of the Firth of Clyde
Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland....
 and the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh, and East Lothian to the south....
 down across the border into Northumberland
Northumberland

Northumberland is a Counties of England in the North East England of England. The non-metropolitan counties of England of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of Nort...
.

Duns, as forts, appear to have arrived with the Brythonic Celt
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
s in about the 7th century BC, associated with their Iron age
Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
 culture of warrior tribes and petty chieftains.






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Loch Steinacleit
Dun (from the Brythonic Din (modern Welsh Dinas) and Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic languages branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish language and Manx language languages....
 Dłn, meaning fort) is now used both as a generic term for a fort (mainly used to describe a sub-group of hill fort
Hill fort

A hill fort is type of fortification refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age and Iron Ages....
s) and also for a specific variety of Atlantic roundhouse
Atlantic roundhouse

In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides....
. In some areas they seem to have been built on any suitable crag
Crag

Crag may refer to:*A steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward or outward, especially a cliff or vertical rock exposure in the north of England or in Scotland...
 or hillock, particularly south of the Firth of Clyde
Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland....
 and the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh, and East Lothian to the south....
 down across the border into Northumberland
Northumberland

Northumberland is a Counties of England in the North East England of England. The non-metropolitan counties of England of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of Nort...
.

Duns, as forts, appear to have arrived with the Brythonic Celt
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
s in about the 7th century BC, associated with their Iron age
Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
 culture of warrior tribes and petty chieftains. Early Duns had near vertical ramparts constructed of stone laced with timber, and where this was set on fire (accidentally or on purpose) it forms the vitrified forts
Vitrified fort

Vitrified fort is the name given to certain crude stone enclosures whose walls have been subjected in a greater or less degree to the Vitrification....
 where stones have been partly melted, an effect that is still clearly visible. Use of Duns continued in some cases into the medieval period.

Duns, as roundhouses, share many characteristics of brochs (often including galleries and stairs), but are smaller and probably would not have been capable of supporting a very tall structure. Very good examples of this kind of dun can be found in the Western Isles of Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, on artificial islands in small lochs.

Toponymy

The word in its original sense appears in many place names, and can include fortifications of all sizes and types, for example , Din Eidyn, in Gaelic Dłn Čideann which the Angles
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
 renamed Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is an ancient stronghold which dominates the sky-line of the city of Edinburgh from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock....
, Dśn na nGall in Ireland (Irish Gaelic: "fort of foreigners") renamed Donegal
Donegal

Donegal is a town in County Donegal, in the Province of Ulster, in Republic of Ireland. Donegal is not the county town of County Donegal, despite being its namesake....
 by English planters, and the Broch
Broch

A Broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
 Dun Telve in Glenelg
Glenelg, Scotland

Glenelg is a village in Skye and Lochalsh, Scottish Highlands, in western Scotland. Its only access is via the 339m Bealach Ratagain from Shiel Bridge on the main Inverness to Isle of Skye road....
.

  • Dundee
    Dundee

    Dundee is the fourth-largest City status in the United Kingdom in Scotland and, fully named as Dundee City, one of Scotland's 32 Local government in Scotland Council areas of Scotland....
    , Dunfermline
    Dunfermline

    Dunfermline is a town in Fife which had official City_status_in_the_United_Kingdom#Pretenders until 1970. It is located on high ground five miles from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth on the route of major road and rail crossings across the firth to Edinburgh and the south....
    , Dunbarton
  • Donegal
    Donegal

    Donegal is a town in County Donegal, in the Province of Ulster, in Republic of Ireland. Donegal is not the county town of County Donegal, despite being its namesake....
  • Duns
    Duns

    Duns was created a Burgh of Barony in 1490 by James IV of Scotland, and is a former county town of Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders....
  • Singidun
    Singidunum

    Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celts Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Ancient Rome who romanized the name....


Gaul

The Proto-Celtic form is *Duno-, yielding Gaulish d??~???. It is ultimately cognate to English town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
. The Gaulish term survives in many toponyms in France and Switzerland,
  • Lyon
    Lyon

    ||-||}Lyon, also known as Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France. Its name is pronounced in French language and Franco-Proven?al language, and or in English language....
     < Lugdunum.
  • Nevers
    Nevers

    Nevers is a Communes of France in the Ni?vre Departments of France in central France.It is the principal city of the former Provinces of France of Nivernais....
     < Noviodunum
  • Yverdon < Eburodunum
  • Verdun
    Verdun

    Verdun is a city in the Meuse Departments of France in Lorraine in northeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although it is not the capital, but the slightly smaller Bar-le-Duc....
     < Verodunum
  • Thun
    Thun

    Thun is a Municipalities of Switzerland in the district of Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland of Berne in Switzerland with about 42,136 inhabitants ....


See also

  • Prehistoric Scotland
    Prehistoric Scotland

    Archaeology and geology continue to reveal the secrets of prehistoric Scotland, uncovering a complex and dramatic past before the Roman Empire brought Scotland into the scope of recorded history....