page_title: Traprain Law
section_title: Name history
hierarchical_section_title: Traprain Law / Name history
caption_attribution_description: English: View northwards from the slope of Traprain Law (composite)
context_page_description: Traprain Law is a hill about 221 m elevation, located 6 km east of Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the site of an oppidum or hill fort, which covered at its maximum extent about 16 ha. It is the site of the Traprain Law Treasure, the largest Roman silver hoard from anywhere outside the Roman Empire and which included exquisite silver artefacts.
  The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century. Following the Roman withdrawal to Hadrian's Wall, it was predominantly uninterruptedly occupied from about 220 until about 400 when the rampart was replaced by one more impressive. The site was abandoned after a few decades.
  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.
context_section_description: This hill was only known as Traprain Law from the late 18th century, taking its name from a local hamlet. This is etymologically a Cumbric name cognate with Welsh tref 'farm' and either pren 'tree' or bryn 'hill'. Law comes from the Old English word hlāw, meaning a hill.
  Before that, it is found on old maps as Dunpendyrlaw. This name appears on a map printed in 1630. An alternative spelling 'Dounprenderlaw' was used in 1547, when a signal beacon was placed on the hill to warn of an English invasion.
  Locally, and particularly amongst fishermen who use it as a landmark, it is still referred to as Dunpelder. This name seems also to be etymologically Cumbric, cognate with Welsh din 'fort' and pelydr 'spear shafts', thus meaning 'fort of the spear shafts'. Dun may also be derived from the Scottish Gaelic word dùn meaning 'fort'. It is as 'Dunpeldyr', the capital of King Lot of Lothian, that Traprain Law appears in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.
caption: Panoramic view northwards from the slope of Traprain Law
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