4/7/2023 UPDATE:
Working again with Brittonic language and place-name expert Alan James, I have settled on what is the simplest explanation for the various Bass names I have been considering.
Here is the decisive message from James on the subject:
"The Bass Rock is certainly bathais 'brow, forehead, crown of head', which is exactly how it appears as you sail out of the Firth of Forth.
"The Bass Rock is certainly bathais 'brow, forehead, crown of head', which is exactly how it appears as you sail out of the Firth of Forth.
I can't find anything on Bass Hill Bwk, unfortunately the Glasgow U Bwk PNs Resource is unavailable just now. But I'd observe that Gaelic names are rare in Tweeddale downstream of Melrose, the toponymy is predominantly English, from early Ntbn to Modern. There are several 'Bas-' p-ns in England, that are referred to the common OE pers. n Bassa, including 3 '-lows' that were burial-mounds presumably repurposed when some of those Bassas were interred. Not so far away, Baskill in Ulpha Cmb is Bassa's shelf (ON skelfr)
If it were Gaelic, I think it would be another bathais. I don't the abstract noun bais is likely to be have been used in a hill-name, unless perhaps it held a gallows, or was the site of some carnage. People don't normally die in burial mounds or cemeteries, they're already dead when they get there! Something like *cnoc na mairbh 'of the dead' would be more likely.
The Bass of Inverurie (the motte) looks to me mightly like a bathais, just the same profile as the Bass Rock.
My hunch for Dunipace is that if the generic, duine, is plural, the specific would still be singular, na bathais - like 'brow hills' in English, referring to a shared characteristic."
In my defense, I had thought of bathais before, but did not have access to supportive material. I find the following in https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/John-Reids-East-Stirlingshire-place-name-data-v2019.pdf:
"Mackenzie [SPN] believes that Bass, as in Bass Rock [and the Bass rock at Boddam], Bass of Inverurie, Bass Hill, Dryburgh, may derive from Gaelic bathais, forehead, which in topography may denote steepness."
Interestingly enough, that note in Reid's work is referring to a Bassie Moss (see the link for the above study) quite close to both Dunipace the town and the hills of Dunipace. Bassie here is from G. basaidh, a basin, a suitable description for a boggy piece of land. This Bassie Moss contained a property called Arthur's Napkine (a pocket handkerchief or a neckerchief) or Gushet (a triangular piece of land, esp. one lying between two adjacent properties; a nook). The napkine bit sounds like a bit of folklore, and it is possible the Arthur name appears here because of the Arthur's O'en at Stenhouse and/or because of the Myot Hill fort just west of Denny (as the Dalriadan Arthur died fighting the Miathi).
Needless to say, a moss like Bassie is not a river, and we are still dealing with Gaelic place-names.
It is probable, then, that Dunipace is a genuine Gaelic place-name and has nothing to do with Arthur’s Bassas river. The best candidate for this last remains Bessingby Beck near Bridlington.
4/6/2023 UPDATE:
I think that for the mounds at Dunipace we must look to those called the Bass and Little Bass of Inverurie for an understanding of the -pace element in the former place-name:
https://canmore.org.uk/site/18883/bass-of-inverurie
https://canmore.org.uk/site/18885/inverurie-keithhall-road-old-inverurie-churchyard
https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/master/detail.aspx?Authority=ASH&refno=NJ72SE0013
While the Bass and Little Bass were originally conjoined, the name seems to stand for the natural mound upon which a motte and bailey was built. As the Bass and Little Bass are in Aberdeenshire, we can safely say that the word in this context cannot be a British bas, ‘shallow.’
The Bass is in a cemetery now, and has had strong associations with death in folk tradition.
There is also a Bass Hill at Dryburgh in Scottish Borders. This mound definitely has ‘death’ associations, as stone cists were found inside of it:
https://canmore.org.uk/site/55660/dryburgh-bass-hill
“Bass Hill: A natural mound. 'Druidical remains' have been found here.
Name Book 1857
Numerous interments of human bodies were found, all of them regularly placed, and many of them in Gaelic sarcophagi of four pieces of thin stone. In 1812 was found on the Bass a stone hatchet, among ashes. The site was probably a Bronze Age burial site.”
Even Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth might contain the Gaelic word for 'death', as it was the scene of many a shipwreck and much loss of life:
"Scotland’s south east coast is dominated by the estuary of the River Forth. The countries capital, Edinburgh, lies just to the south of the coastline and, as a result, the river has become a key artery for shipping bringing goods from all over the world to the population and industries of the city. The wide firth has many small islands across it’s breadth including May Island and Bass Rock that in poor visibility often caught unsuspecting or careless ship‘s captains unawares with tragic consequences. As the river narrows smaller islands like Inchkeith and Inchcolm further narrow the navigable channel and were often the site of further strandings and loss of life."
"Scotland’s south east coast is dominated by the estuary of the River Forth. The countries capital, Edinburgh, lies just to the south of the coastline and, as a result, the river has become a key artery for shipping bringing goods from all over the world to the population and industries of the city. The wide firth has many small islands across it’s breadth including May Island and Bass Rock that in poor visibility often caught unsuspecting or careless ship‘s captains unawares with tragic consequences. As the river narrows smaller islands like Inchkeith and Inchcolm further narrow the navigable channel and were often the site of further strandings and loss of life."
As Dunipace, The Bass and Bass Hill all seem to relate to beliefs about burial, I think the best etymology for Dunipace remains ‘Hill[s] of Death.’ As such, this site has nothing to do with Arthur’s Bassas. Bessingby Beck remains our best candidate for the Bassas battle site.
***
.JPG)
Dunipace Near Arthur's Oven in the Miathi Kingdom
Arthur's Oven Near Dunipace
Dunipace Showing the Ford (Bas)
For years now I have championed Dunipace in Scotland as Arthur's Bassas. There were three reasons for the identification:
1) John Reid had settled on an etymology Dun-y-bais (see below) for the location. As most linguists agree that Bassas is from bas, 'shallow' (and thus, in some contexts, a ford), this made sense.
2) Dunipace is near Arthur's Oven. While the Roman monument had nothing to do with Arthur, it had been associated with him in folk tradition from fairly early on.
3) Dunipace is in the territory of the Miathi, and we are told that Arthur son of Dalriada (NOT the earlier British Arthur) died fighting that Pictish tribe.
All of that seemed pretty good to me, even though it meant I had to allow for the Bassas battle being an intrusion into the list of a later Arthur.
For those who would like to learn more about Dunipace and Arthur's Oven, I refer you to the following helpful links:
John Reid, in The Place Names of Falkirk and East Stirlingshire 2009, 39-40, gives the most recent proposed etymology for Dunipace:
"‘The object of the name seems to have been two hillocks known as the Hills of Dunipace. These features nurutred another popular derivation: ‘hills of death’, dùnach and bàs. Certainly the hills may have been perceived as burial mounds, even today there are people who believe them to have been so, but, in reality, they are simply moraines. Historically the name exhibits only minor variations:
Dunypais 1190, c1200
Dunypas 1195, 1479
Donypas 1207, 1470
Dunpas 1251, 1267, 1426
Donypace 1467, 1487
Dunipace 1475, 1482
From the late fifteenth century, with a few exceptions, it settles to the modern form. The name probably has origins in Cumbric and, given that the hills are next to an important ford, it may be acceptable to suggest the derivation *dun-y-bais (sic: should be *din-i-bas > *dyn-y-bas AJ, Reid’s version would be a Gaelicised form), ‘hill of the ford’ (more correctly, ‘of the shallow [place]’ AJ). It must be stressed, however, that Dun has a variety of meanings: ‘heap, hillock, hill, fort’ (but Cumbric din is definitely ‘a fort’, so ‘fort of the shallow’)."
To be honest, the old idea is better. It doesn't matter if they were glacial moraines; people would not
have known that in the pre-scientific era. They look like artificially produced grave mounds.
And I am very concerned with the use of a Cumbric bas here. Used for a fording place, it is rare even in Welsh. But look at this:
"The name of the road that ran north from the ford was “Rid Lonyng” or Red Loan which equates to the Redbraes found elsewhere in the Falkirk area that refer to early river crossings and which John Reid notes as having been derived from the British word “ritu” (Welsh “rhyd”) meaning ford."
If the Cumbric word rhyd was used for the ford in this context, why then employ bas?
I don't think Reid's idea works, alas. Dunipace should be Dunirid or Dunirit or some such, if it referred to the ford. The extremely unusual form of the mounds would most certainly have suggested to people's minds ancient barrows. Furthermore, as is all too obvious, a bas is not a stream. We need a stream name that features bas[sas]. The river name at Dunipace is Carron, an ancient name that we find preserved as early as 710 A.D. in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 'River of the bas', then, is not very convincing.
For this reason, I have decided to reject Dunipace as Arthur's Bassas.
Falling back on an earlier idea for Bassas, I naturally tend to gravitate to Dr. Graham Isaac's authoritative treatment of this name, which I cited in my various books. Following his lead, I had appended some possible candidates, deriving Bassas not from a Cumbric bas, 'shallow', but from the OE personal name Bassa. Here is the entire section from my original book on Arthur:
<The ending -as in Bassas would appear to have no explanation in either Latin or Welsh grammar. But it does have an explanation in Old English grammar. The name could thus be Old English. Just as Baschurch (Shropshire) is from Old English 'Basses cirice', i.e. 'Basse's church' (Eglwyseu Bassa in the Old Welsh poems), and Basford (Nottinghamshire) is Old English 'Basses ford', and Baslow Derbyshire) is Old English 'Basses hlaw', i.e. 'Basse's burial-mound'; so 'flumen quod uocatur Bassas' is easily unde stood as 'the river which is called Basse's', i.e. 'Basse's river'. There is a Basingbourne in Cambridgeshire, Old English Basingeburna, which is 'the stream of Basse's people', 'Basse's kin's stream'.
There are two genuine OE Bassa place-names further north in Northumberland. Bassington in
Cramlington parish was a farmstead a litte over a mile north-west of the village. It appears on a map of 1769 and is probably a much older site. In the present day town of Cramlington the site of Bassington Farm is on the Bassington Industrial Estate. However, other than this Bassington's proximity to the Devil's Water at Linnels (approximately 20 miles as the crow flies), there is little to recommend it as the site of Arthur's Bassas River battle. Most damaging, there is no stream here.
The other ‘tun of Bassa’s people’ is at the confluence of the Aln and the Shipley and Eglingham Burns not far east of a Roman road that connects Dere Street and the Devil’s Causeway. This Bassington is also roughly equidistant between the Northumberland Glen and the Devil’s Water/
Dubglas near Hadrian’s Wall, and near the Roman fort of Alauna on the Aln at Low Learchild.
The Streams at Bassington
Harehope Burn, near these hillforts -
- becomes Eglingham Burn, which joins the Shipley Burn and flows past Bassington.
Once again, however, there is no stream at Bassington bearing the Bassa name.
In the East Riding of Yorkshire, near Bridlington, there is a place I originally overlooked. This is Bessingby, the by or ‘farmstead, village, settlement’ of the people of Bassa. The important
thing about Bessingby is that there appears to have been a Romano- British settlement here
(http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1191551) and a Bessingby Beck or stream hard by.
"Summary : Air photographs show rectilinear ditches north and south of the railway and Bessingby Beck. Cropmarks of a multi-ditched enclosure with internal sub-division, also associated linear ditch boundaries, are visible. The enclosure measures circa 85 x 60m. Possible prehistoric or Roman date.
"Summary : Air photographs show rectilinear ditches north and south of the railway and Bessingby Beck. Cropmarks of a multi-ditched enclosure with internal sub-division, also associated linear ditch boundaries, are visible. The enclosure measures circa 85 x 60m. Possible prehistoric or Roman date.
More information : Cropmarks of a multi-ditched enclosure with internal sub-division, also associated linear ditch boundaries, are visible on air photographs. The enclosure, centred at TA 1687 6556, measures approximately 85m by 60m. Possible Prehistoric or Roman date. (1-2)
APs show rectilinear ditches N and S of the railway and Bessingby Beck. (3)"
A Roman road ran from York to Bridlington
(https://roadsofromanbritain.org/gazetteer/yorkshire/rr810.html) and some believe (see Rivet and Smith) this to be the territory of the Gabrantovices, probably “cavalry fighters” and not “goat fighters”. The Gabrantovicum Sinus of Ptolemy would then be Bridlington Bay.
It is quite conceivable that Bessingby Beck was once known simply as “Bassa’s Stream”.
There is a potential problem with this placename, however. The –by terminal is Norse, and it is likely, therefore, that the entire name is not from Bassa, but from Bessi. Or, that if Bassa is the name recorded, it would not have become a place-name until fairly late. Here is what Alan James had to say on ths subject:
“A. H. Smith's PNERY, 100, which says: 'The first element may be a patronymic formation, "the people of Basa or Besa", but there is little or no evidence for such -inga- formations with OScand by. It is therefore more likely to be a patronymic Basing or Besing with an uninflected genitive. Each name is well recorded... the fo mer may be from OE Bassa or OScand Bassi, the latter from OScand Bessi (a variant of Bersi....).
As there is no clear evidence for a change of a to e in ME, Besing- seems more probable, and in that case the less frequent but earlier Basing- forms would be Anglo-Norman spelling variants... Besing's farmstead'.
Subsequent work, especially by Barrie Cox, has demonstrated that the patronymic '-inga-' formations in S and E England (as far north as Yorks) date from the pre-Christian period, so such formations would have been long since obsolete by the time OScand by was introduced.
Smith's etymology would imply an Anglo- Scandinavian formation from the late 9th - early
11th ct.”>
Eilert Ekwall (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names) has an interesting take on Bessingby:
"Basinghebi DB, Basingebi c. 1130 BM, Besingebi 1166 YCh 1139. The form suggests an original Baesingabyr or the like. The first el. is apparently a derivative of the pers. n. discussed under BASING. But B~ is probably a Scandinavianized form of an OE Baesingaburh or -tun."
The English Place-Name Society site
"Basinghebi 1086 DB
Basingebi, Basingeby 1086 DB 1114–24,1135–9 Bridl 1128–32 BM
Besingbi, Besingby, Besyngby 1114–24 Bridl 1232 FF 1446 Ch
Basingby 1125–33,1145–53 Bridl
Besingebi, Besingeby 1155–7 YCh 1156–7 Bridl 1166 RBE 1195–8 P 1231,1246 Ass
Bessingby 1157–8 YCh1159
Bessynby 1521 Test
Besinby, Besinbie 1455 Test 1560 FF
Bessonby 1650 ParlSurv 1695 Morden
Etymology
The first element may be a patronymic formation 'the people of Basa or Besa ' (v. ing ), but there is little or no evidence for such -inga - formations with OScand by. It is therefore more likely to be a patronymic Basing or Besing with an uninflected genitive. Each name is well recorded, Basing in LVD (ZEN 23) and Besing in the ERY Hernisius filius Besing (1142–54 YCh 1201) and elsewhere. The former may be from OE Bassa or OScand Bassi (ZEN 23), the latter from OScand Bessi (a variant of Bersi , cf. LindN and Baswick supra 72). As there is no clear evidence for a change of a to e in Middle English, Besing - seems more probable and in that case the less frequent but earlier Basing - forms would be Anglo-Norman spelling variants (cf. IPN 112). 'Besing 's farmstead.'"
If we can allow for Bassa being present in this place-name, and given that we have both a beck bearing the name of Bass's people, and have a Roman road present that originates from Dere Street and is not far from York, Arthur's City of the Legion, I now feel fairly confident is putting this site forward as my new "improved" candidate for the Bassas River.
Yes, I know that many will object, if for no other reason than they refuse to allow English names into the HB battle list. However, such Celtic language purists can be proven wrong again and again by English names showing up in the early Welsh heroic poetry. A very good example that is especially pertinent in this case is the eglwysseu bassa or Baschurch that shows up as the grave site of Cynddylan. Some have even opted to choose Baschurch as Arthur's Bassas - which is ridiculous, assuming we accept that he was fighting Saxons at the latter location.
Roman Road from York to Bridlington
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