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Stories of Scotland

Border Reivers: Outlaws on the Edge

Stories of Scotland

Annie and Jenny

History, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 728 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are the Scottish Borders a rebel stronghold? Join Annie and Jenny as they examine the often-overlooked stories of the Border Reivers: the families of raiding, plundering, land-burning, outlaws. Jenny explores her ancestry roots in the Scottish Borders, to discover she comes from a family of bloodthirsty brigands. We look at Border clans, curses and, calamities as we unpick the ballad of Johnnie Armstrong. This episode is sponsored by Scotland Shop. If you are tempted to check out some of Scotland Shop’s beautiful tartan garments and fabrics, please follow this link to Scotland Shop. https://hubs.ly/H0-0fjl0You can support Stories of Scotland on Patreon! www.patreon.com/storiesofscotland References:Alistair Moffat, The Reivers, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2008.‘Johnny Armstrong’ broadside ballad, National Library of Scotland Collections: digital.nls.uk/english-ballads/archive/74893315John Veitch, The Tweed, and Other Poems, James MacLehose, Glasgow, 1875.Katherine Anne Groundwater, The Middle March of the Scottish Borders, 1573 to 1625, University of Edinburgh: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/24651 ‘The Ballad Poetry of Scotland,’ Alloa Advertiser, Feb 1879.Claire Etty, Tudor Revolution? Royal control of the Anglo-Scottish border, 1483-1530, Durham University: etheses.dur.ac.uk/1283/ Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, James Ballantyne, Kelso, 1802. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination.

0:11.1

Not a care in the world as you simply lean back and before you know it, you're there.

0:16.7

London to Glasgow from just 46 pounds each way.

0:20.5

Avanti West Coast.

0:22.0

Feel good travel.

0:23.8

Exclusions and limitations apply.

0:25.6

Full terms and conditions can be found at avantiwestcoastcoast.com.

0:28.1

UK forward slash plan. Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, a podcast where we are outlaws, following an ancient pony trail into the Scottish hills to see which goats we can steal.

0:55.6

I mean, find and befriend completely legally.

1:00.6

I'm Annie.

1:01.8

Hmm, and I'm Jenny, and I've got my eye on you.

1:05.4

There'll be no goat stealing here.

1:07.4

Well, maybe a little.

1:09.2

Or a lot.

1:10.4

Or a societal way of life, revolving around thievery that dominates for a few centuries.

1:15.1

It's not, it's irrelevant at this point.

1:17.4

Because in this episode, we are talking about the border reavers.

1:21.8

So this week, we're looking at the border clans, their families and feuds.

1:27.6

As you said, we are going to meet the weird and wonderful border reavers.

1:33.1

Well, it depends on which side of the reeve you're on, whether you think they're wonderful or not any.

1:39.5

And we've touched upon these border reavers in quite a few previous episodes,

1:44.7

and I have been looking forward to researching them properly for ages.

...

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