page_title: Dumnonia
section_title: Settlements
hierarchical_section_title: Dumnonia / Settlements
caption_attribution_description: Cadbury Castle from Corton Ridge, foreground detail lifted out of shadow
context_page_description: Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, in what is now the more westerly parts of South West England. It was centred in the area later called Devon, but included modern Cornwall and part of Somerset, with its eastern boundary changing over time as the gradual westward expansion of the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex encroached on its territory. The spelling Damnonia is sometimes encountered, but that spelling is also used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, in what is today southern Scotland. Domnonia also occurs and shares a linguistic relationship with the Breton region of Domnonée, Breton: Domnonea.
context_section_description: Around AD 55, the Romans established a legionary fortress at Isca Dumnoniorum, modern Exeter, but west of Exeter the area remained largely un-Romanized. Most of Dumnonia is notable for its lack of a villa system, though there were substantial numbers south of Bath and around Ilchester, and for its many settlements that have survived from the Romano-British period. As in other Brythonic areas, Iron Age hillforts, such as Hembury and Cadbury Castle, were refortified in post-Roman times for the use of chieftains or kings, and other high-status settlements such as Tintagel seem to have been reconstructed during the period. Local archaeology has revealed that the isolated enclosed farmsteads known locally as rounds seem to have survived the Roman departure from Britain; but they were subsequently replaced, in the 6th and 7th centuries, by unenclosed farms taking the Brythonic toponymic tre(f)-.
  Exeter, called Caer Uisc in Brythonic, was later the site of an important Saxon minster, but was still partially inhabited by Dumnonian Britons until the 10th century when Æthelstan expelled them. By the mid-9th century, the royal seat may have been relocated further west, during the West Saxon advance, to Lis-Cerruyt (modern Liskeard). Cornish earls in the 10th century were said to have moved to Lostwithiel after Liskeard was seized. It has been suggested that the rulers of Dumnonia were itinerant, stopping at various royal residences, such as Tintagel and Cadbury Castle, at different times of the year, and possibly simultaneously holding lands in Brittany across the Channel. There is textual and archaeological evidence that districts such as Trigg were used as marshalling points for "war hosts" from across the region.
caption: Cadbury Castle, Somerset, a possible early Dumnonian defensive site
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