structural ruins atop the hill. These originally belonged to a fortification system with a timber-reinforced stone rampart where the main fortification was supplemented by smaller defensive works along the low-lying slopes. According to Toolis, this suggests the presence of a royal stronghold of the period: "This is a type of fort that has been recognized in Scotland as a form of high status secular settlement of the early medieval period. The evidence makes a compelling case for Galloway being the core of the kingdom of Rheged." Genetic legacy According to the University of Oxford's People of the British Isles project, the original population of Rheged has left a distinct genetic heritage amongst the people of Cumbria. The research compared the DNA of over 2000 people across the British Isles whose grandparents were all born within of each other, and found a number of cases, including Rheged, where genetic clusters of people matched the location of historical kingdoms (other examples included Bernicia and Elmet). Notes but see: Clarkson, T. J., The Men of the North: The Britons of Southern Scotland, John Donald, 2010, p. 71: "Archaeologists are extremely sceptical that this was a site occupied in Early Historic times, still less that it was a royal residence. Such scepticism raises serious doubts about the usual derivation of the place-name Dunragit which may in fact be a red herring. It has been suggested that the second element could be Gaelic reichet rather than Old Welsh Reget, and that the place was so named by the Gall Gaidhil, 'foreign Gaels', who colonised Galloway in the Viking period." For Gaelic re(i)chet, cf. the Old Irish place name Mag Roichet/Rechet (Modern Irish Maigh Reichead), now Morett, country Laois, Ireland. References Sources and further reading Further reading Former countries in the British Isles History of Dumfries and Galloway History of Cumberland History of Cumbria History of Westmorland Hen Ogledd Taliesin