The Border Reivers

More than 300 years of theft, skirmish and plunder has left its mark on the Border lands. Jessie Anderson follows the Reiver Trail

Today the border dividing England and Scotland runs through one of the most tranquil areas of Britain. But step back a few centuries and you will find a very different scene. For this is the Debatable Land – home to the notorious Border Reivers and, from the 14th to the mid- 17th centuries, one of the most lawless regions in the country.

It was an area which neither the English nor the Scottish authorities could control and which owed allegiance to neither (hence the term ‘debatable').

Here families lived by thieving and plunder (or reiving); stealing their neighbour's cattle and having their own stock stolen in return. When the steelhelmeted Reivers rode abroad on their tough, little ponies, usually in the dark nights of winter, they spread destruction and terror, taking or destroying not only property but sometimes the lives of their victims, leaving ‘bereaved' families in their wake and thereby contributing a new word to the language.

Much reiving activity took place on both sides of the border, with the Scots stealing from the English and vice versa. But Scottish reiver families happily attacked and stole from each other without feeling the need to cross the border.

Their exploits so outraged an early Archbishop of Glasgow that he gave vent to one of the most comprehensive curses ever recorded. In all it ran to more than 1500 words, which had absolutely no effect on those Border ruffians but must have made His Grace feel a lot better.

King James VI of Scotland ...

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• By : Jesse Anderson
• In : Destinations
• Issue : 34
• Page : 54
• Words : 1,224