DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Dún : (dOOn) Dún comes from the Brythonic Din and Gaelic Dún, meaning fort, and is now used as a general term for small stone-built strongholds, enclosures or roundhouses in Scotland, as a sub-group of hill forts. In some areas they seem to have been built on any suitable crag or hillock, particularly south of the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth down across the border into Northumberland.

Dúns appear to have arrived with the Brythonic Celts in about the 7th century BC, associated with their Iron age culture of warrior tribes and petty chieftains. Early Dúns 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 where stones have been partly melted, an effect that is still clearly visible. Use of Dúns continued in some cases into the medieval period.

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 Dún Éideann which the Angles (Anglos) renamed Edinburgh, and the Broch Dun Telve in Glenelg.