Vindolanda
Attested: in multiple Vindolanda tablets; Vindolande at position 132 in the Ravenna Cosmography; Vindolana in the Notitia Dignitatum
Where: Chesterholm Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall at NY77056635.
Name origin: Vindo- in early place names generally meant ‘winding river’, which here is Charnley Burn, especially downstream from the fort as it wiggles towards the Tyne. The -landa part is a forerunner of Old English land or of Welsh llan ‘enclosure, churchyard’, but more usefully of French lande ‘heath’ (i.e. shrubland, found mainly on free-draining, infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation) said to descend from Gaulish *landa. The fort sits on a raised platform with streams on three sides, like an island (hence the holm in its English name).
Notes: Roman engineering work to channel water into their forts on or near Hadrian's Wall is described at length by Selkirk (1995 pp363-370). Charnley Burn would have carried more water back then to the Roman bath house than it does now. Old ideas of somewhere ‘white, pure, holy’ (inspired by Welsh gwynn etc) or ‘fair, pleasant’ (inspired by English winsome, Old English wynland etc) are a red herring, even though still repeated by those who should know better.
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Last edited 5 January 2025 To main Menu