Traprain Law — The Ancient Codex

Traprain Law, East Lothian — Photo: Kim Traynor / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Traprain Law is a settlement near East Linton, East Lothian, Scotland.

What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.

The name

The hill has been called Traprain Law only since the late 18th century, taking its name from a local hamlet — a Cumbric name cognate with Welsh 'tref' ('farm') and either 'pren' ('tree') or 'bryn' ('hill'), with 'Law' from Old English 'hlāw', a hill. Earlier maps record it as Dunpendyrlaw (1630) and Dounprenderlaw (1547). Locally, especially among fishermen using it as a landmark, it is still called Dunpelder — also Cumbric, cognate with Welsh 'din' ('fort') and 'pelydr' ('spear shafts'), thus 'fort of the spear shafts'.

History

Traprain Law — historical view — Photo: S. Rae from Scotland, UK / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC and shows evidence of occupation and ramparts after 1000 BC; the ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times over the following centuries. Excavation has shown Late Iron Age occupation from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century — roughly the period the Antonine Wall was manned.

In the 1st century AD the Romans recorded the Votadini as a British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements — named Curia by Ptolemy. The tribe later emerged as the kingdom of the Gododdin, with Traprain Law thought to be their capital before the centre moved to Din Eidyn (Castle Rock, Edinburgh).

In 1547 a signal beacon was placed on the hill to warn of an English invasion. In 1938 part of the hill was leased to the district council as a road-stone quarry, causing substantial disfigurement to the landscape.

People

The Votadini / Gododdin

British tribe and successor kingdom whose major settlement (and probable capital) this was
Ptolemy

Geographer who recorded the site, apparently as 'Curia'
Alexander Ormiston Curle

Archaeologist who recovered the Traprain Law silver hoard in 1919
Curle and Cree

Led the first excavations of the hill, 1914–1923

Cultural influences

Roman Britain: the site sat just beyond the frontier, and its occupation tracked Roman activity in the north (ending around the time the Antonine Wall was manned). The silver hoard is overwhelmingly Roman-era table silver.
Brythonic / Cumbric culture: the tribe's own name (Gododdin) and the hill's older names (Dunpelder, 'fort of the spear shafts') are Brythonic, placing the site at the heart of the early historic kingdoms of the Old North.

Connections

Traprain Law Treasure (National Museum of Scotland)

The largest Roman silver hoard found outside the Empire, recovered here in 1919 and now in the NMS
Photo: 瑞丽江的河水 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Din Eidyn (Edinburgh Castle Rock)

Where the Gododdin capital is thought to have moved from Traprain Law
Mildenhall Treasure & Hoxne Hoard (Suffolk)

Comparable Roman silverware finds cited to show such plate was in genuine use in Roman Britain
North Berwick Law & Bass Rock

Neighbouring landmarks formed of the same unusual phonolite rock
Hadrian's Wall

Frontier across which the Votadini may have raided, possibly bringing back the hoard silver

Discovery & excavation

Curle and Cree began the first excavations in 1914, continuing to 1923 and finding fragmentary stone and timber houses beneath the turf. In 1919 Alexander Ormiston Curle recovered the Traprain Law Treasure — over 24 kg of sliced-up Roman-era silver in a pit within the settlement, accompanied by Gallic coins of Valens, Arcadius and Honorius that date the deposit to the 5th century AD, after Rome had left Britain. Most pieces had been crushed and hacked up, the find including table silver, early Christian items and remnants of a Roman officer's uniform. Further excavations followed by Cruden in 1939 and Bersu in 1947. The treasure is now in the care of the National Museum of Scotland.

Finds now held at: National Museum of Scotland (Traprain Law Treasure).

In culture

Traprain Law appears as 'Dunpeldyr', the capital of King Lot of Lothian, in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.
Up to 1891 the hill was the origin (meridian) of the 6-inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of East Lothian.

What to look for

The remains of the hill fort / possible oppidum, which at its maximum extent covered about 16 ha (40 acres) of the 220 m hill — its much-rebuilt ramparts trace centuries of refortification.
The scar of the 1938 road-stone quarry, which cut substantially into the hill's flank.
The phonolite rock of the summit — the same unusual stone as nearby North Berwick Law and Bass Rock, intruded as a laccolith around 350 million years ago.

What is said

Folklore and tradition, recorded as what is said — not as established fact.

In legend Traprain Law was the cliff from which Thenaw — mother of Saint Mungo — was thrown by her father King Lot (Leudonus) when he discovered she was pregnant by Owain mab Urien. Saved by divine providence, she was carried by boat to Saint Serf's community at Culross, where she bore Kentigern, later known as Mungo.

Plan your visit

Location: 55.9631°N · 2.6725°W
Nearest settlement: East Linton
Access: Reached on a public path
Terrain: Moderate walking
Start point: Traprain Law car park (foot of the hill) — Small free car park at the foot of the hill on the minor road below the north/west flank; the hillfort summit is a walk up from here. Keep clear of the disused quarry edge near the top.