Borders Heritage Week: Conflict on the Frontiers - September 11-19, 2010

BHW 2010

Date: 11 September 2010

Duration: All Week

The Scottish Borders region has seen countless conflicts, from large wars and battles to small-scale ‘reiving’ and skirmishes, along its historically fluctuating frontiers.  Conflict was undoubtedly a major feature of prehistoric Bronze and Iron Age societies as frontiers between groups shifted along the fluid movements of tribal politics.  The remnants of these societies can be found on many of the Borders’ hills in the forms of burial cairns, large hillforts and long linear earthworks such as the sinuous Catrail.  Borders’ conflicts officially entered the history books with the campaigns of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Governor of Britannia, and his Roman legions in around 80 AD.  Soon after, the Romans established a major routeway, known today as Dere Street that extended through the region and connected the legionary fortress at York with the Firth of Forth.  Roman encampments and forts along Dere Street and the Tweed Valley can still be seen in Borders fields at places such as Pennymuir and Lyne giving testimony to the importance the Romans placed on keeping the local British population in check.  

The Roman occupation of the Borders only spanned a few decades, but their legacy continued for centuries.  In fact, many of the subsequent conflicts throughout the early and later Middle Ages followed the established course of Dere Street.  It is possible that the road was used by the Gododdin on their ill-fated march from Edinburgh to Catterick in the early 7th century.  The Anglian Northumbrian Kingdom likely used it to form a major political frontier separating the territory of Bernicia from the British kingdoms to the west.  In the later Middle Ages, Dere Street became a major route for kings and armies from both Scotland and England in their continual struggles to control, and rest control of, the region.  

At least one major medieval battle took place along Dere Street, the Battle of Ancrum Moor during the Rough Wooing in 1545.  There were a number of battles and skirmishes that took place in the region in the 13th and 17th centuries, including the Battle of Philiphaugh in 1645 between the Covananters and the Marques of Montrose.  The relative anarchy of the later Middle Ages in the Borders is perhaps best exemplified by the Reiving families who regularly raided and fought each other across the various Anglo-Scottish borders.  This period left an indelible mark in the landscape with the numerous fortified homes, bastles and towers, that are known in the region.  These include the likes of Smailholm Tower near Kelso, and Neidpath Castle near Peebles.  Many of these were destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions and raids, and indeed national armies, came and went.  The castles of Roxburgh, Jedburgh and Peebles, as well as the Border monasteries at Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh, Dryburgh and Coldingham, all saw similar fates.

As might be expected, this long and fraught history has left the Borders with one of the richest archaeological records pertaining to conflict in the country.  This year, ‘Conflict on the Frontiers’ is the focus of the annual Borders Heritage Week to be held between the 11th and 19th of September, coinciding with Scottish Archaeology Month.  There will be a number of events across the region during the week.

Visit this website: Borders Heritage Week 2010 Map

Download this document: Borders Heritage Week Leaflet (2.49 MB)