~ Scottish Place Names: def~

 Dumbarton... 

Dumbarton - a historic town on the north bank of the river Clyde - has been an important and strategic place going back to before the 5th Century. It was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of the Britons - Strathclyde - from the 5th centurty to the 11th, when it became part of Scotland; the name Dumbarton derives from "dun breatainn",  'fort of the Britons'.

So the name should really be DUNbarton;indeed, 12th and 13th century records show it as 'Dunbretane'. The county name has indeed been changed back to Dunbartonshire not so long ago.

Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Great Britain. It overlooks the town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is 240 feet (73 m) high

At least as far back as the Iron Age (and probably much earlier) this has been the site of a strategically important settlement, whose residents were known to have traded with the Romans. The presence of a settlement here is first recorded in a letter written by Saint Patrick to King Ceretic of Alt Clut, (or Clyde Rock) in the late 5th century.

From the fifth century until the ninth it was the centre of the independent British Kingdom of Strathclyde. The King of the Britons of Dumbarton in about AD 570 was Riderch Hael, who features in Norse legends. It is said that during his reign, Merlin (of Knights of the Round Table fame) stayed at Alt Clut. In 756 the first (and second) losses of Dumbarton Rock were recorded. A joint force of Picts and Northumbrians captured Alcluith after a siege, only to lose it again a few days later...

...The Castle continued to be of historic and strategic importance until the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, but threats posed by Jacobites and the French in the eighteenth century caused new structures and defences to be built and the castle continued to be garrisoned until World War II.

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