The name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, from dubh meaning "black, dark", and lind "pool", referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duilinn. The original pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Variations on the name are also found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (Gaidhealtachd, cognate with Irish Gaeltachta), such as An Linne Dhubh ("the black pool"), which is part of Loch Linnhe.
It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The Viking settlement of about 841, Dyflin, and a Gaelic settlement, Ath Cliath ("ford of hurdles") further up river, at the present day Father Mathew Bridge (also known as Dublin Bridge), at the bottom of Church Street. Baile Atha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Ath Cliath is a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Atha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. There are other towns of the same name, such as Ath Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford.
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