Dunum bay

Identification: the bay at the mouth of the river Tees 

The name comes from the final part of Lugunduno, which was an as yet undiscovered Roman fort at Dinsdale Park, on the north bank of the Tees at the point where Margary road 80a crossed the river (this identification is explained in Chapter 15: Navione to Alavna (187)). The name was presumably transferred by the Romans from the fort to the river and the bay took its name from the river. The same process occurred with the name Galluvio, where the final element, with the minor change of v to n, yielded the modern river-name Lune. In other cases the final element of the Roman name acquired the river-letter t, applied by those who coined place-names in the hill-letter l, to yield the modern river-name. Thus the cel of Cindocellum, assuming there should be only one l, yielded the river-name Clota, which later turned into Clyde. Likewise the stabi of Ratostabius yielded the modern river-name Ystwith and the cla of Stuccla (actually given as Stuccia in Ptolemy’s Geography) turned into the modern river-name Clwyd.

[NB. Detailed information as to the different river-letters and as to how they were combined to form compound river-names, together with information as to the four categories of Celtic river-names, is given in Chapter 19: the rivers of Roman Britain. Detailed information as to the different hill-letters is given in Chapter 1 and information as to how the hill-letters were combined to form compound place-names is given in Chapter 2]

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