[If the text below uses any of the terms ‘hill-letter’, ‘river-letter’, ‘old-style name’, ‘transitional name’ and ‘inversion-type name’ a reader who is not familiar with those terms may wish to refer briefly to ‘The Celtic names of hillforts’, where an explanation of those terms is given].

The Celtic names of hillforts

Hembury

Location: northwest of Honiton in Devon

OS map reference:  ST 113 031                                                           

Celtic name: Moriduno

Source: Ravenna Cosmography (23) – Moriduno

            Antonine Itinerary (Iter XV) - Moriduno

This is a small multivallate hillfort at the end of a ridge extending south from the Blackdown Hills. There are steep slopes on all sides except the north. The fort itself is believed to be Iron Age though there is evidence that the site was occupied as far back as the Neolithic period.

The writer's reasons for associating the name Moriduno with Hembury are given in Chapter 10 (Roman place-names in southwest England) of the Home menu. The name as it stands is a compound in the hill-letters m, r and n₂, the dun element meaning ‘summit of hill’.

It is not clear whether the name as it appears in Ravenna refers to the hillfort itself, to a Roman post built inside the hillfort once the occupants had been evicted, or to a Roman fort built nearby and to which the name of the hillfort was transferred.