[ Ссылка ]
Dumbarton Castle and Rock
To him who enters Scotland by her western gate, the River Clyde, there rises majestic from its low and level northern bank the cleft basaltic pile of Dumbarton Rock, crowned and willed about with a fortress which, since im- memorial time, has been a stronghold of renown. Once its name was Dunbriton, “the Briton’s Rock,” but even before that ancient tribe gave it a name, it was a fortress; the Venerable Bede tells of the days when it was simply Alcluyd, “ the Rock upon the Clyde.” In his days it was capital of a kingdom, Strathclyde. Long before this the Roman galleys, patrolling the western waters, creeping timidly out to Ultima Thule, made this their station and winter port, named Theodosia. Then a Roman fort crowned the summit, and bulwarked the end of Antonine’s defensive wall. What it was earlier, and what skin-robed tribe first held its summit, is and shall be unknown, but certain we may be that it has been a refuge and a strength in this low land ever since human eyes first beheld it.
