Traprain Law

Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century (about the time that 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.

[2] They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name Gododdin and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to Din Eidyn (Castle Rock in modern Edinburgh).

A team led by Curle and Cree began the first excavations in 1914 and continued them until 1923, finding layers of fragmentary stone and timber houses under the turf.

Consisting of over 24 kg (53 lb) of sliced-up Roman-era silver, the discovery was made in a pit within the boundary of the settlement earlier uncovered.

In legend, Traprain Law was the cliff from which Thenaw, the mother of Saint Mungo, was thrown when her father, King Lot or Leudonus, discovered she was pregnant by Owain mab Urien.

Saved by divine providence, she was transported by boat to Saint Serf's community in Culross, where she gave birth to Kentigern, later also known as Mungo.

It was intruded around 350 million years ago as a laccolith into sandstones, siltstones and dolomitic limestones of the Ballagan Formation of the Carboniferous period.