Traprain Law

55°57′47″N 2°40′21″W / 55.96306°N 2.67250°W / 55.96306; -2.67250

Traprain Law is a hill 6 km (4 mi) east of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. It is the site of a hill fort or possibly oppidum, which covered at its maximum extent about 16 ha (40 acres). It is the site of the Traprain Law Treasure,^[1] the largest Roman silver hoard from anywhere outside the Roman Empire which included exquisite silver artefacts.

The hill, about 220 m (720 ft) above MSL, was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century (about the time that the Antonine Wall was manned).

In the 1st century AD the Romans recorded the Votadini as a British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements, named Curia by Ptolemy.^[2] They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name Gododdin and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to Din Eidyn (Castle Rock in modern Edinburgh).

In 1938 an area of the hill was leased to the district council for use as a quarry for road stone, causing substantial disfigurement to the landscape.^[3]