March Newsletter

This March sees a unique historic festival recalling the infamous and daring outlaws known as the Border Reivers. Over the Easter Weekend, the Hawick Reiver’s Festival presents colourful re-enactments, music, walks and other events in the small town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders. It’s an event that’s full of heritage and pageantry that the locals are fiercely proud of and it’s an event that’s becoming increasingly popular with visitors.

The Hawick Reiver’s Festival harks back to the 16th Century where, long before Wyatt Earp was shooting it out with the Clantons at the OK Corral, Cattle Rustling was a way of life for a disparate group of clans who lived along the tumultuous border between Scotland and England.

For hundreds of years the picturesque valleys of the Scottish Lowlands were regarded as the bloodiest places in Britain following numerous skirmishes, battles and all out wars between Scotland and her Auld Enemy, England. Between the Cheviot Hills bordering England and the Tweed Valley you’ll find evidence of this violent past in the ruined abbeys of Jedburgh, Kelso and Melrose.

Those who lived in the Borders were often caught in the middle and learned to give allegiance only to those who they could depend upon, their own kinsmen. A clan feudalism existed similar to that of the Highlanders with popular Border clans being the Elliots, the Scotts, Johnstones, Beattie, Graham and Armstrong.

Raiding parties from both sides of the borders would constantly transgress on the other’s territory and this region had a law of its own known as Border Law under which, if your cattle had been raided, you had six days in which to launch a counter raid across the border. This started with a rally in the town, known as a Hot Trod, to declare your intentions and gather arms.

These Border Reivers as they were known were awesome horsemen, feared and respected in equal measure on both sides of the border, and were at times considered outlaws by both the English and the Scottish courts. In battle, the Border Reivers were considered to be among the finest light cavalry in Europe.  The Border Reiver way of life were later romanticised during the 19th century by writers like Sir Walter Scott, who as a native to the Scottish Borders growing up in Smailholm Tower, would have heard the local legends, folk stories and ballads that were passed down the generations.

From time to time a day of truce would be established to gather the clans from both sides of the border. This event would be a great social gathering for the Border Reivers and is still recognised today with the Hawick Reiver’s Festival.

This year the festival runs over the Easter weekend from 21st to 23rd and will feature a range of events and activities including a traditional farmers market and the reconstruction of a traditional Reiver encampment with costumed re-enactments involving stock trails and traditional musicians. There are a number of storytelling events and dramatisations of local legends held over the weekend. The festival includes a Torchlit procession through the town, enacting the Hot Trod followed by a Bonfire and fireworks display and the Reiver’s Concert into the night.

If you’re in Hawick in June you’ll be able to watch the spectacular Common Riding, a horse ride of daring do, which commemorates a victory of local Reivers over a raiding party from England in 1514.

The Hawick Common Riding is the first and biggest of a number of Border festivals celebrating the ancient custom of riding to the boundaries. The day’s events begin with a marching band to rouse the town, followed by a ceremonial taking of snuff before the crowd disappear to the pub for rum and milk. Then the main event as 300 riders led by a Cornet chosen from the towns young men, race through the town and its parish borders before the Cornet ceremonially ‘cuts the sod’ and races back to the town to declare the borders secure. This is followed, as is tradition, by a ceremonial dinner and plenty of hard drinking!

If you’re planning a vacation to Scotland or Britain this month contact one of our guides for the latest deals on accommodation and travel.