Border Reivers at Tosson Tower

With the King and a huge chunk of Scotland’s aristocracy and clergy lying dead on the field at Flodden, the Kerrs took the opportunity to ride up to Kelso abbey the night after the disastrous battle and Dand Kerr of Ferniehirst had his younger brother Thomas, or Tam as he was known to his reiver friends, installed as Commendator, on the reckoning that they were protecting it from any English follow-up attack. Tam went on to become Abbot of the abbey in 1534, with the Cessford Kerrs eventually taking over after the murder of William Kerr in 1556 on the orders of the Regent Moray. The abbey is an impressive ruin near the centre of modern Kelso today and is well worth a visit. There are also partially ruined abbeys at nearby Jedburgh and Melrose, where the heart of Robert the Bruce is buried.

Hawick ( pronounced ‘Hoyk’ ) was a Scott stronghold and the town is a great base for getting around the area today. The Border textiles towerhouse is a hands-on exhibition exploring the town’s industrial past in knitwear and tweed, while hidden inside the building is a 16 th century pele and you can learn all about it in the ground floor tower room. The Registrar of Genealogy can also help with your family history research. The textiles towerhouse is at 1 Tower Knowe in the town, has free entry and is open all year around, Monday to Saturday 10-4.30 and Sunday 12-3 from April to October and Monday-Saturday 10-4, closed Tuesday and Sunday, from November to March. In 1593 two bands of English riders raided all the way up to Hawick, taking goods and cattle, and although the King sent Hamilton, Hume, Seton and Sir Robert Kerr to rescue the goods, it was felt by many to be a false alarm. Three years later Buccleuch gathered most of the Elliot clan to his house in Hawick as a ...

Auld Watt’s son William Scott was a character who was caught sheep stealing once too often, despite his father’s warnings that times were changing after King James VI started to clamp down on the reivers. It wasn’t the Crown that young buck William had to worry about though, but an irate Sir Gideon Murray who is said to have offered the reiver a choice – the rope or the hand of his none-too-pretty daughter, known as ‘Muckle Mooth Meg.’ William was reputed to be full of bravado and said it was ‘nowt for a Scott to die’ but soon changed his mind and married the lass. Historians have subsequently proved the story as a tall tale, but it’s a good one. Robert Scott married an Elspeth Murray of Elibank at Aikwood in 1602, with their initials carved in a wall of the tower. The large pele was built in 1540 and now provides stunningly restored five star boutique accommodation in the Etterick Forest. It’s also a wedding venue and corporate setting near the town of Selkirk and b...