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December 22, 2018 by Alexander Meldrum
Scotlands Citys & Towns
Dunbar
Dunbar (/d?n'b??r/ is a coastal town in East Lothian on the south-east coast of Scotland, approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of Edinburgh and 30 miles (48 km) fro...Scotlands Citys & Towns
Dunbar
Dunbar (/d?n'b??r/ is a coastal town in East Lothian on the south-east coast of Scotland, approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of Edinburgh and 30 miles (48 km) from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecclesiastical and civil parish.
The parish extends around 7 1/2 miles (12.1 km) east to west and is 3 1/2 miles (5.6 km) deep at greatest extent, or 11 1/4 square miles (29 km2), and contains the villages of West Barns, Belhaven, East Barns (abandoned) and several hamlets and farms.
Its strategic location gave rise to a history full of incident and strife; but Dunbar has become a quiet dormitory town popular with workers in nearby Edinburgh, who find it an affordable alternative to the capital itself.
Until the 1960s, the population of the town was little more than 3,500. The town is thriving with the most recent population published for the town at 6,940, and there are many active and planned housing developments ongoing.
There are very well regarded primary schools, a secondary school and a private school in the town.
The town is served by Dunbar railway station with links to Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland, as well as London and stations along the north-east corridor.
Dunbar is home to the Dunbar Lifeboat Station, the second-oldest RNLI station in Scotland.
Dunbar is the birthplace of the explorer, naturalist and influential conservationist John Muir. The house in which Muir was born is located on the High Street, and has been converted into a museum.
There is also a commemorative statue beside the town clock, and John Muir Country Park is located to the north-west of the town. The eastern section of the John Muir Way coastal path starts from the harbour. One of the two campuses to Dunbar Primary School: John Muir Campus, is named in his honour.
On the last full weekend in September, Dunbar holds an annual weekend-long, traditional music festival sponsored by various local companies.
Etymology
In its present form, the name Dunbar is derived from its Gaelic[specify] equivalent (modern Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Barra), meaning "summit fort".
That itself is probably a Gaelicisation of the Cumbric form din-bar, with the same meaning. This form seems to be attested as Dynbaer the seventh-century Vita Sancti Wilfredi.
Early history
To the north of the present High Street an area of open ground called Castle Park preserves almost exactly the hidden perimeter of an iron age promontory fort.
The early settlement was a principal centre of the people known to the Romans as Votadini and it may have grown in importance when the great hillfort of Traprain Law was abandoned at the end of the 5th century AD.
Dunbar was subsumed into Anglian Northumbria as that kingdom expanded in the 6th century and is believed to be synonymous with the Dynbaer of Eddius around 680, the first time that it appears in the written record.
The influential Northumbrian monk and scholar St. Cuthbert, born around 630, was probably from around Dunbar. While still a boy, and employed as a shepherd, one night he had a vision of the soul of Aidan being carried to heaven by angels and thereupon went to the monastery of Old Melrose and became a monk.
It was then a king's vill and prison to Bishop Wilfrid. As a royal holding of the kings of Northumbria, the economy centred on the collecting of food renders and the administration of the northern (now Scottish) portion of that kingdom.
It was the base of a senior royal official, a reeve (later sheriff), and, perhaps, in the 7th century a dynasty of ealdormen or sub-kings who held northern Northumbria against Pictish encroachment.
Go to Wikipedia for full History
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