TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E, 633 
3. Report on Terrestrial Surface Waves.—See Reports, p. 301. 
4, Brunanburh :; Identification of this Battle Site in North Lincolnshire. 
By the Rev. AuFrED Hunt, M.A. 
No modern historian of repute is able to name the site of this famous battle of 
the tenth century—fought between the Saxon king Athelstan on the one hand 
and Anlaff the Dane and Constantine, King of Scotland, on the other—though 
most are agreed as to the importance and greatness of the battle. The numbers 
engaged are supposed to have been over 120,000, and the result of the battle was 
to raise England in the councils of Europe to a position never reached before. 
The present paper suggested reasons for the belief that this battlefield is to be 
found in North Lincolnshire, at the hamlet of Burnham, in the parish of Thornton 
Curtis, within four miles of the Humber. 
Geographical considerations send us at once to the river Humber and district 
in search of the lost site, while many of the old writers agree in saying that 
Anlaff entered the mouth of the Humber, and that the battle was fought near by, 
though silent as to where Anlaff landed and encamped. Now, as is evident from 
the form of the river Humbér, this landing must be placed between Spurn Head 
and the junction of the Ouse and the Trent, either on the Lincolnshire or York- 
shire side; and it is probable, from the statements regarding the number of 
Anlaff’s vessels (615) and troops, that he divided his forces, sending a portion 
against the Saxon outpost at Brough (the Roman Petuaria), on the Yorkshire side, 
and also effecting a landing at Barrow Haven, a tidal and navigable stream on 
the Lincolnshire coast. 
At Barrow Haven there are extensive earthworks of the usual Danish form of 
construction for an entrenched position, covering an area of eight acres, and 
locally called Barrow Castles. It was suggested that these were thrown up by 
Anlaff on landing. South of Barrow Castles, and four miles away, is the hamlet 
= ea believed by the writer to be the true site of the Battle of Brunan- 
urh. 
At Burnham extensive lines of entrenchments, covering over sixty-four acres, 
of a totally different character from those at Barrow, are still to be seen, while local 
tradition has always said this was a great battlefield. There is a perennial stream 
at the rear of the camp which was the only surface-spring known for seven miles 
across the Lincolnshire Wolds. In Domesday Survey this hamlet is entered as 
Brune in the parish of Thornton Curtis, while in the ‘ Welsh Chronicle of the 
Princes’ and in the ‘ Annales Cambri’ the battle is called the Battle at Brune. 
Adding to this name the possessive termination, av, together with the Angio- 
a ‘burh’ (camp or earthwork), we at once have the long-lost word Brun-an- 
urh. 
From this camp, burh, or earthwork the two main Saxon roads from the 
West and South of England called Ermine Street and Fosse Way are available for 
Athelstan’s support. At Castlethorpe a few miles south-west and near the 
present town of Glamford Brigg, which commands the only place of crossing the 
river Ancholme, are extensive earthworks of a similar nature to those at Burn- 
ham. Here was discovered in 1884 a Danish raft constructed like the famous 
Gokstad boat or Viking ship. 
The best geographical description of the land and place of battle is given in 
Egil’s Saga. This tells us that Athelstan came northwards to repel the invasion by 
the Humber; that the battle took place by Vin-heath, or Vin-wood; and that the 
land sloped towards the north. North of the heath stood a town occupied by 
Anlaff and Constantine. South of the heath was another town to which Athel- 
stan came, and to which he returned after the battle. 
All these conditions are fulfilled in the case of Burnham, The town in the 
north is Barrow, that in the south Glamford Brigg ; the ground slopes north from 
Burnham ; there is still one field of Vin or Whin left; while the whole of 
