Saint Patrick was from Scotland, research confirms

The paper “Saint Patrick's birthplace & the names of the Roman forts along the Antonine Wall” states that new Roman period place names assigned to four places along the Antoinine Wall, which was constructed in Scotland around 142 AD by the Romans, confirms Saint Patrick’s birthplace.

The four name places include three forts along the Antonine wall (VOLITANIO (Mumrills), MEDIO (Balmuildy), NEME‐ TON (Old Kilpatrick), and one settlement beyond the wall SUBDOBIADON (Dumb‐ arton).

According to the researchers, a link found between the Roman names on the wall and Saint Patrick’s birthplace se‐ curely ties the saint’s place of birth to Old Kilpatrick.

It proves Saint Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was born in the year 387 at Kil‐ patrick, near Dumbarton which is in Scotland. Patrick tells us that he grew up in Bannavem Taberniae, but efforts to locate this place precisely have so far failed. He tells us elsewhere that he was a Briton, and a Roman citizen.

One place suggested for this has been southwest Scotland, which would be close to Ireland for raiders, and would also explain how Patrick knew Corotic‐ us, who is named as king of Dumbarton in the fifth century in Welsh annals. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and enslaved as a shepherd for several years. He attributed his ability to persevere to his faith in God.

His birth name was actually Maewyn Succat -- it wasn't until he was in the Church that it was changed to Patricius, or Patrick.

Old Kilpatrick is located at the western end of the Antonine wall, making it the seventh of the main forts along the wall - SUBDOBIADON, Yet, the Gaelic hymn of Fiacc records Nemthur as the birth‐ place of Saint Patrick. The paper ex‐ plains the mismatch between SUBDOBI‐ ADON and Nemthur.

Here is an excerpt from the paper: Ifwepostulate amistake byacopyist joining MEDIOandNEMETON, weobtain notonly agoodmatchforOldKilpatrick butforthreesuccessive entries onthe Ravenna Cosmography:

1. between the new 6th entry MEDIO and Balmuildy (Gaelic for Town of Muildy),theprevious bigfort, 2.between thenew7thentry NEMETON andNemthur,and 3.between thenew8thentry SUB-DO‐ BIADON andDumbarton, thenextobvi‐ ousplacewithaRoman association and thelikelyportserving thewall. MEDIOcanbetranslated as"cultivated" or"meadow", whichbestfitsthesiteat Balmuildy, asthisistheonly largefort onariver inarableland. "Nemeton" isgenerally agreedtomeana sacredplace,whichwouldsuitthereli‐ giousbackground ofSaintPatrick. The missing "M" in Dumbarton versus Roman "Dobiadon" maybeexplained by thelocal Welsh-likelanguage inStrath‐ clyde.Ifwepostulate that"do"in"Do-bi‐ adon"isthesameasWelshdouu/dom, withthemeaning "settlement associated with(another)", thenSUBDO( M)BIADON canbetranslated: "Sub(LatinUnder) + dou(m) (settlement associated with) + Biadon/ Bia-don(thefortorhillofBia).A weak"M"inthelocal dialect wouldex‐ plainthemissing "M"inSUBDOBIADON compared toDumbarton. Thisweek"well"M"mayalso explains theextra "M"inNemthurcompared to thelocal placenameof(Dou)notyr, now Dalnotter, asitelocated aboveanim‐ portant fordoftheClyde.Thisfordwas undoubtedly always animportant loca‐ tionandlikelytobesettled intheRo‐ manperiod. Thusitisanobvious candi‐ datefortheoriginal location ofOldKil‐ patrick.

Finally, ifweaccept avariant reading of an inscription at found Mumrills fort, this inscription confirms Mumrills was VOLITANIO, the second entry of the Ravenna Cosmography.

In the field of British Roman place names,Roman nameshaveoften been allocated toplacesbasedonfarlessev‐ idence thanevenoneofthesematches. Sotohavethreenamesinarunisex‐ ceptionally goodevidence, asitisvery unlikely tooccur bychance.

This compels us to conclude that Old Kilpatrick is the NEMETON of the Ravenna Cosmography, Nemthur of Saint Patrick, and that this name is likelyretained inthename"Dalnotter", a smallvalleyjustatakeyfordacrossthe Clyde.

The research paper can be found in its entirety here.

*Originally published inMarch2022. Updated inMarch2024.