Introduction

This is a blog dedicated to my interest in the history and language of the medieval kingdom of Cumbria, which stretched at its greatest extent from the shores of Loch Lomond to Stainmore on the south east border of the modern English county of Cumbria.

Traces of the Cumbric language in the form of place names are found as far east as Berwickshire and Northumberland, as far west as Galloway and as far south as Lancashire and North Yorkshire. To the north they border with the Pictish lands north of the Forth and the Gaelic kingdoms to the north and west.

I am not an academic, I do not work in a university, though I will try to make my musings evidence based. Not being an academic allows me to be more adventurous in my suggestions, but I hope my natural restraint will stop me from making insupportable claims.

In terms of my sources, there are books, and I will reference them. But the internet has provided us with wonderful things that were not available even a decade ago - detailed maps, old maps, old books from archive.org , unpublished theses, and of course the thoughts of others.

I will rely fundamentally on key figures in the study of the Celtic place-names of the North, particularly W J Watson, J M Jones, Kenneth Jackson, Ifor Williams as well as the modern giant Alan James! The work of O J Padel, Diana Whaley, Richard Coates, Andrew Breeze and John Wilkinson is also very helpful. Most of these people are respected academics and they are not connected with my fumblings in the dark, with which they might well fundamentally disagree. But to the living and the dead, I say thanks.

Tony Walker