Ogledd

Ogledd is a Welsh word meaning “north.” In historical usage, it refers to the Brythonic-speaking polities that occupied northern Britain in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, collectively known in Welsh as Yr Hen Ogledd, or the Old North. The term describes a cultural and political landscape that formed after Roman rule withdrew and persisted roughly from the 5th to the 7th centuries, before the rise of later Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the expansion of Northumbria.

The core kingdoms of the Old North are typically listed as Gododdin (centered at Din Eidyn, near modern Edinburgh), Rheged (in the Solway and Eden valley region), Elmet (in parts of what is now West Yorkshire and the eastern Leeds area), and Alt Clut Strathclyde (centered on Dumbarton Rock, with influence into the upper Clyde valley). These polities were not static; borders shifted and subordinate relationships changed over time. They interacted with neighboring powers, including Northumbria, various Pictish realms, and Irish kingdoms, through warfare, marriage alliances, and diplomacy.

Evidence for Yr Hen Ogledd comes from Welsh literary sources such as genealogies, Triads, and the Historia Brittonum, alongside Latin annals and some Irish material. The linguistic heritage of these realms is Brythonic, the ancestor language of Welsh, Cumbric, and related tongues. Although the Old North dissolved as distinct kingdoms by the 7th–8th centuries, its memory persists in Welsh literature and in the study of early Brittonic languages and place-names.

The legacy of the Old North shaped later regional identities in northern Britain, influencing the historical landscapes that followed in both Scotland and northern England.