Group 15: Cumbria

This group takes us on a roughly clockwise tour of Cumbria, starting with a duplicated name (which is probably the same as the Galaua of the Antonine Itinerary Iter X), usually identified with Ambleside (Rivet & Smith 1979, 365), but part of an extremely problematical route. Iter X has no fixed points north of Ribchester and a recent book (Shotter 1993, 105) suggests a new interpretation. It depends on the clearly untenable identification of Lancaster, the L… or I… of RIB 2272, with the <Galacum> of the Itinerary. The names of both Roman and modern Lancaster presumably contain an element deriving from the name of the Lune (possibly Celtic *Lona, ‘full, healthy’, Ekwall 1928, 271; although see below); an identification with the corrupt <Olenaco> of the Notitia Dignitatum (Occ. xl.55) (for *Lonaco ?) is not out of the question.

Rivet and Smith’s (1979, 244) identification of the Itinerary’s <Alone> with Watercrook cannot stand, as previously recognised by Rivet (1970, 54), since it is on the River Kent, a name of Celtic origin (Ekwall 1928, 226), which appears in the Cosmography (108₃₀) as <Coantia>. Alone (for *Alauna) is always derived from a river-name. Ian Smith (1997, 375) identifies <Alone> with the <Alione> of the Notitia Dignitatum (Occ. xl.53) on the grounds that the garrison listed for the latter is not that attested at Maryport-on-Ellen, its usual identification. It is true that the Notitia’s placing of <Alione> between <Glannibanta> and <Bremetenraco>, Ribchester, does not suit an identification with Maryport, but it does allow an equation with the Itinerary’s <Alone>. He further links these two names with a local god, Ialonus Contrebis, attested on an altar from the Lune valley (RIB 600) and suggests that the name *Ialona should be applied to Lancaster and the River Lune.

The Cosmographer then runs via *Mediobogdo, usually identified with Hardknott, following Richmond and Crawford (1949, 40), but more probably Watercrook, near Kendal (Shotter 1979, 319), as the occupation at Hardknott seems to have been early and short-lived (Collingwood 1921, 16). Shotter’s reasons for placing *Mediobogdo (‘the middle of the bend’) at Watercrook are based on a better topographical situation at that site than at Hardknott Pass; however, his arguments relating to the remainder of the names cannot be upheld for the reasons given above. The Cosmographer continues on to *Glanouenta, identified ‘provisionally’ with Ravenglass by Haverfield (1915, 82) on the basis of the mileages given by the Antonine Itinerary Iter X. However, an inscription of Cohors I Aelia Classica from Ravenglass (Tomlin 1997, 463) enables it to be identified with the <Tunnocelo> of the Notitia (Occ. xl.51) and the <Iuliocenon> of the Cosmography, respresenting an original *Itunocelo. *Glanouenta should then be the fort at Ambleside (Smith 1997, 378), which cannot therefore be the Galaua of the Antonine Itinerary Iter X, which may be Beetham, as Smith (ibid.) proposes. The Cosmographer appears to progress along the coast from Ravenglass to Maia, Bowness-on-Solway, at the western end of Hadrian’s Wall. *Gabrosento also occurs in the Notitia (Occ. xl.50), where the garrison listed (Cohors II Thracum) enables us to identify the name with Moresby, where the garrison is attested in the third century by RIB 797, 803 and 804; Alauna is clearly Maryport, on the river Ellen (derived from Alauna: Ekwall 1928, 6)). *Bibra is therefore likely to have been the fort at Beckfoot, and Maio is the same as Maia, the western end of Hadrian’s Wall, at Bowness.

The next name, Olerica, used to be identified with Old Carlisle, which it cannot be, as this was the Magis of RIB 899. The following name, Deruentione, is clearly on the River Derwent (Ekwall 1928, 123) and must be Papcastle, in which case Olerica may be the fort at Troutbeck. After listing Papcastle, the Cosmographer makes a wild leap eastwards across to *(B)rauonia(co), Kirkby Thore, as first recognised by Horsley (1732, 501). This may be another instance of a name written to the west of its symbol.