The battle for survival in the troubled borderlands meant fighting for your country one day and against your neighbour the next. 

The strongest loyalty was therefore to your grayne (or clan) and your chieftain. Bitter feuds between clans could last generations, whichever side of the border they were on. 

Many descendants of the reiver clans still live in the borders. Others are found in great number in Ireland and America, sent in the 1600s ‘there to remaine and not to returne’.

Is your family name (or someone you know) among the more than 70 surnames that made up the border reivers? 

© Marcus Byron. Contains OS data © Crown copyright 2026. OS AC0000818253

Going with the grayne

The infamous border families scattered far and wide. Many were banished to the north of Ireland and America or went to Europe as mercenaries. If your surname is on this list, you may be closer to the reivers than you think!

Hesleyside Hall, home of the Charleton family. Photo © Peter McDermott (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Some reivers earned notable nicknames for their looks and deeds, useful when so many shared the same surname. Jerry ‘Topping’ Charlton was known for his tuft of hair, Nebless Clemmie Croser had lost his nose, and Thom Scott was called The Stower (chillingly, the Carver-Up). Hesleyside Hall near Bellingham, shown here, is still home to the renowned Charlton family.

Reiver descendants have achieved great things in Britain and around the world.

Image - Wikimedia

Neil Armstrong

The first man to walk on the moon (1969).

Image - Wikimedia

Alexander Armstrong

TV presenter, comedian and singer (born in Rothbury).

Image - Wikimedia

Sir Ridley Scott

Film director (Alien, Gladiator and many more).

Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy

Jack and Bobby Charlton

Footballers in England’s World Cup winning team in 1966.

Image - Wikimedia

Jill Scott

England footballer and member of the Euro 2022 winning team.

Image - Wikimedia

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the telephone.

Image - Wikimedia

Billy Graham

American evangelist and Civil Rights advocate.

Image - Wikimedia

Richard Nixon

37th President of the United States of America.

Image - Wikimedia

T S Eliot

Poet and playwright, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

Image - Wikimedia

Deborah Kerr

Six-time Oscar nominated actress.

Image - Wikimedia

Ernest Rutherford

Pioneering atomic and nuclear physicist.

Image - Wikimedia

Admiral Lord Collingwood

Hero of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

It is said that, on awakening, a borderer would first feel his throat to make sure it had not been slit in the night!

The border reivers were far more likely to be loyal to their family surnames (‘graynes’) than to the English or Scottish crown.

In fact, some would change sides in the middle of a battle if it suited them better.

The reiving families could call on hundreds of their kin to carry out robbing raids. To survive in the unsettled uplands, they stole cattle, sheep and goods from across the border or from each other. The reivers were lawless and shared the same violent code of conduct.

Photo © TheTumblingMan

The reivers robbed and raided right across the border country, reportedly as far north as Edinburgh and south into Yorkshire. A border ballad recounts The Rookhope Ryde, when reivers from Tynedale rode south to Weardale in County Durham. The reivers were defeated by the brave Rookhope locals, losing several members of their gang and all 600 of the sheep they had rounded up.

Looking down onto Tarset Burn from the remains of Tarset Castle. In 1523 Sir Ralph Fenwick, Keeper of Tynedale, brought his troops to the castle, ready to capture the notorious reiver William Ridley. This infuriated Ridley’s friends. The following year, William Charlton and 200 Charltons, Milburns, Dodds and Scottish reivers from Liddesdale chased Fenwick and his men out of Tynedale. The castle was ransacked and burnt, never to be rebuilt, and William Charlton and his brother were condemned to death.

Photo © Andrew Curtis (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Over the centuries, the border reivers have been seen as romantic outlaws and skilled fighters, or ruthless and blood-thirsty racketeers and cattle rustlers. What do you think?

They were cursed in both countries as "evell disposed personnes, inclined to wildness and disorder", but also described as "fine soldiers, able with horse and harness, nimble, wile and always in readiness for any service".

Credit: Look and Learn

Border reivers setting out on a cattle raid. This romanticised illustration comes from the book ‘Tales of a Grandfather’ by Sir Walter Scott, published in about 1910.

The reivers’ tales were recounted in their traditional Border Ballads. These were collected in 1802 by renowned Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott (also a reiver descendant) as Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, volumes I and II.

Photo © Dzlinker (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Reivers usually carried out their night-time raids late in the year. This is the best time to enjoy our spectacular dark skies now too.

© Neil Denham

The raiders welcomed the long moonlit autumn nights, when it was easy to drive well-fed stolen cattle over dry ground. A successful night ride could feed a reiver's family for months.

The coat of arms of the Scotts of Buccleuch features two crescent moons and a star. The family motto means ‘the moon will replenish our coffers’.

Photo © MostEpic (by-sa/4.0)

Borderers were expected to abide by either English or Scottish laws. But there were also Border Laws, needed to manage the unruly frontier.

The area was divided up into East, Middle and West Marches on either side of the border, and wardens were appointed to administer the Border Laws. They had power over life and death, but it was often too difficult and dangerous to enforce it.

Photo © John de Critz (cc-by-sa/2.0)

After the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, King James abolished the Border Laws, got rid of the wardens and renamed the area ‘The Middle Shires’. It did not stop the reivers straight away.

Families who had survived for generations by raiding and looting now had to abide by the law. Those who refused were rounded up and evicted or banished. The others were rewarded with land.

The Border Laws did allow victims to try and recover their goods. Armed riders quickly gathered with dogs for the ‘Hot Trod’ and were given free passage on the chase if they carried a burning peat on a spear.

Other grievances were addressed at Truce Days, where English and Scottish wardens met to administer the law for 24 hours ‘from sonne to sonne’.

Photo © Andrew Curtis (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Truce Days were popular social gatherings too. The meeting places for the Middle Marches included this remote spot near the border at Deadwater, where Bells Kirk once stood, and high up in the Cheviots where ancient Clennell Street meets Gamelspath (on the line of Roman Dere Street). Follow the Emblehope Trail to pass close to these Truce Day sites.

The name ‘reiver’ comes from the old verb ‘to reave’ – to rob. We still use it today. If you lose a loved one, you are ‘bereaved’.

The reivers have given us other words and concepts too. Raiders captured with blood on their hands, proving their guilt, were said to be ‘caught red-handed’.

Today ‘blackmail’ is usually paid to prevent someone revealing information. For the reivers, it was a protection racket. It took the form of an illegal rent, usually livestock, which you paid to them to protect you from being robbed by them. A no-win situation!

Photo © Andrew Curtis (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Early enclosures were usually protected by a surrounding fence of wooden stakes or ‘pales’. The phrase ‘beyond the pale’ came to mean ‘undefended’ and later ‘unacceptable’. Fortified ‘pele’ towers were built within the pales to defend against the border reivers. This fortified tower in Elsdon, built in the 1500s and known as the 'Vicar's Pele', is the oldest continuously inhabited property in Northumberland National Park.

Ever wondered why a loud public disapproval is called a ‘hue and cry’? Criminals like the border reivers could be legally chased if a noisy alarm was raised – and anyone hearing the ‘hue and cry’ was required to help.

Credit : Look and Learn

Northumberland is famous for its broad views and sweeping empty hills.

We can probably thank the reivers for that. Centuries of fighting along the border made it almost impossible to live and farm there.

Spot farm buildings nestled in the centre of villages like Elsdon, where there was safety in numbers. Look out for the fortified towers that still dot the landscape. Explore the large estates that were created when the land was reclaimed. 

It’s hard to believe there were too many people on this land at the height of the border wars. The traditional inheritance system of ‘gavelkind’ meant farms were split equally between sons and became too small to support families. The military forces sent to keep the peace could not be fed. No wonder so many men became outlaws and thieves.

Photo © Les Hull (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Livestock was kept close to home in autumn when raids were most common. In summer, farmers built temporary turf shelters called ‘shielings’ on high ground to watch over their grazing animals. Spot clues to these in place names like Shepherd Shield near Stonehaugh and Smith’s Shield near Once Brewed. The remains of this shieling stand beside the River Irthing, not far from Scotchcoulthard on the Wark Forest Trail.

The reivers and the long cold winters of the Little Ice Age made farming challenging in the high border country 500 years ago. Recent climate changes have brought storms and droughts, like violent Storm Arwen in November 2021.

Photo © Leanmeanmo (cc-by-sa/2.0)

If you’ve ever played football, heard a ballad or watched a horse-race, you’re sharing your hobbies with the border reivers.

Music, games and gambling were welcome light relief for the reiving families, whose lives were a constant battle for survival. The raiders depended on their strong fast ponies, so race meetings were popular and kept horses and riders fit. The reivers loved football too, although the original game was more of a mass brawl.

Given the long connection, it’s perhaps no surprise the north-east has produced some of England’s finest footballers, including Jill Scott, Jackie Milburn, Jack and Bobby Charlton and Bobby Robson – all descendants of reiver families.

Photo © Mike Quinn (cc-by-sa/2.0)

An infamous football match was played in 1599 between six Scottish Armstrongs and six English Ridleys at Bewcastle, home of the reiving Musgraves. The game was a plot to capture the Armstrongs, but they were forewarned and arranged an ambush. Three people were killed and 30 taken prisoner.

Medieval mass ball games are still played in several border towns each year. At Jedburgh, Uppies and Doonies play ‘hand ba’, battling to get a leather ball to the top or bottom of town. Tradition says the first ever game used the head of an Englishman instead of a ball!

Euan Cherry / Alamy

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) - Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830).

The reivers enjoyed singing melancholic ballads about their way of life, accompanied by a harp or bagpipes.

These epic ballads were passed down through the generations by word of mouth until Scottish novelist and historian Sir Walter Scott collected and popularised them in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border 1802.

Look out for the distinctive fortified buildings that still dot this border landscape. Like medieval panic rooms, they were designed to protect the inhabitants and repel the ruthless reivers.

Farming families fortified their farmhouses, which were often grouped together for protection, while chieftains added tall stone towers to their homes. In times of trouble, livestock was barricaded on the ground floor while the family sheltered above. Access was by trapdoor or ladder, so there were no stairs for the raiders to get in.

The Wardens of the Marches lived in large castles like Hermitage Castle. The poorest folk built rough turf houses, which were easy to rebuild after raids, and had fenced stockades for their animals.

Tarset Bastle ©Neil Denham

The fortified ‘bastles’ and ‘pele towers’ offered some protection from reiver raids. If the family opted to leave, the buildings were often filled with slow-burning peat to stop the attackers getting in. These are the remains of Tarset bastle near Sidwood, part of a cluster of fortified farmhouses along the Tarset Burn. Follow the Emblehope Trail to pass close by.

Pele towers and bastles often had a clan bell or beacon so the alarm could be raised during a raid. Because of the risk of fire and theft, the buildings were usually simply furnished. This restored fortified tower, known as The Vicar’s Pele, is beside St Andrew’s Church in Corbridge.

Photo © Mike Quinn (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Credit: Low Cleughs Bastle © Peter McDermott (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Local tradition says that some reivers buried their worst enemies under the threshold of their homes, in effect walking over their bodies whenever they entered the house. Not burying them in a churchyard also meant their enemies’ souls were left in limbo. Could this have happened at Low Cleughs Bastle near West Woodburn…?

Spot hardy ponies, cattle, sheep and goats as you explore the trails. Five centuries on from the border battles, farmers are still trying to make a living in this high, open land.

The reivers were skilled riders and valued horses for raiding, racing and working. Their strong, fast ponies – called hobblers or bogtrotters – were very similar to the fell ponies you’ll see on the hills today. They were often stolen for ploughing, then returned exhausted later.

The best time to take livestock was in autumn, when the animals were well-fed and fit for herding – though it was hard to make a quick getaway if your booty included pigs!

Photo (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Trail hounds or ‘slew dogs’ were essential on a hot trod – chasing after the reivers to reclaim stolen goods – and the best dogs were very valuable. One way for reivers to try and break their scent trail was by escaping along a watercourse.

The sheltered hollows on Snabdaugh Moor, above the River North Tyne west of Bellingham, were often used by English raiders to rest stolen Scottish livestock on the way south. Follow the Bellingham Trail to explore this area.

Photo © Stephen Richards (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Photo © Sarah Dalrymple (cc-by-sa/2.0)

As you explore the north of the trail area (especially the Emblehope Trail) you might spot these feral goats, which were probably here at the time of the border reivers. They may be the wild descendants of local domestic herds, or descended from the goats kept by the monks of Lindisfarne until their monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII in the 16^th century.

As so often happens in historical records, the women of the reiving families are rarely mentioned, let alone named. But we can get occasional glimpses into their lives.

When 30 reivers raided a house on Sir John Forster’s estate near Wooler in 1589, they stole women’s dresses, nightgowns and ribbons, as well as cooking pans, sheets and a feather bed. The reivers’ wives and daughters must have been delighted with such a haul. Perhaps they were like the ‘wild’ women of Kielder, said to have ‘no other dress than a bedgown and petticoat’!

Some reiver women are also remembered for their influence on their menfolk. One Graham family mother ordered her son to go raiding for food, saying ‘Ride, Rowley, ride – hough’s i’ the pot!’ – there was nothing left to cook but a cow’s shinbone (the hough).

The Charlton Spur © Bill Cresswell ©

Famously, the Charlton women also made clear when the men of Hesleyside needed to go reiving and restock the kitchen cupboards – they served them a riding spur on a dish for breakfast! The family still has the 500-year-old silver spur at Hesleyside Hall, their home near Bellingham.

The 19^th century Scottish artist William Bell Scott painted the lady of the house presenting the reiving Charltons with ‘The Spur in the Dish’, as part of the large mural you can see in the central hall at Wallington Hall near Cambo. This is one of his preparatory sketches for the artwork.

Credit: William Bell Scott, Compositional Study for the Wallington Hall Painting 'The Spur in the Dish' National Galleries of Scotland

The farming reiver women would have worn clothes like these – a linen shift, skirt and bodice tied with leather thongs, woollen stockings, leather shoes and a felted, knitted bonnet to keep off the rain. Take a closer look at this reproduction costume, and find out much more about the border reivers, at Bellingham’s Heritage Centre. You’ll pass close by on the Bellingham and Emblehope trails.

If you pull on a jacket and hat to explore these trails, you are following the fashion of the border reivers. And don’t forget your picnic!

The wealthier battle-hardened raiders wore protective ‘jacks’ – well-padded sleeveless tunics, often sewn with metal plates – with a woollen cloak over the top, breeches, leather boots and bowl-shaped helmets called ‘steel bonnets’. Each would carry a long lance or staff, useful for fighting on horseback, and a shield, short sword and daggers on their belts for close fighting. Occasionally they carried small crossbows called ‘latches’, and later began using ‘dags’, heavy wheel-lock pistols.

The men usually carried some meat, a little sack of oatmeal and a metal plate behind their saddles on their raids too. They would make a paste of oatmeal and water, and cook the rough cakes on their plates over a fire.

Gala War Memorial. Credit: © Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons.

The Reiver Monument by Thomas J Clapperton stands in front of Galashiels War Memorial in the Scottish Borders. You can see the rider’s lance, steel bonnet, protective jack and long leather riding boots with spurs – and his bog-trotter- pony

Poorer reivers could only afford a basic jack, steel cap and spear. Others had to make do with their everyday clothes, a staff and possibly a leather shield. They would steal whatever clothing, weapons and horses they could find during their raids and after battles.

Most of the border reivers were farmers and landowners, loyal to their clan or grayne and stealing from their neighbours to survive. By contrast, ‘moss troopers’ were gangs of men, often with no land, rejected by their grayne or army deserters. They were thieves, highway robbers and cattle rustlers – and usually excellent horsemen.

Credit: Thomas Jones Barker, The Moss-Trooper (1869) via Wikipedia.

You can find out more about the border reivers and explore the places they knew along the Reiver Trails.

For a deeper dive into reiver stories and border places, here are some great places to visit:

• The Heritage Centre, Bellingham – explore the heritage of the Northern Borders
• The Liddesdale Heritage Centre and Museum, Newcastleton – looking forward into history
• Kielder Forest and Kielder Castle – endless opportunities at England’s largest forest
• The Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre, Once Brewed – for family days and landscapes that amaze
• Hermitage Castle, Newcastleton – an awesome, eerie ruin with plenty of tales to tell, thanks to its role as ‘the guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Britain’ (shown below)
• Hexham Old Gaol – England’s oldest gaol (shown below)
• Bewcastle Museum at St Cuthbert’s Church, Bewcastle – a village steeped in Roman and Border history
• Lanercost Priory, Brampton – one of Cumbria’s best preserved monasteries
• Tullie, Carlisle – a home for the eternally curious, telling the story of Carlisle and Cumbria

Hermitage Castle under a threatening sky. © Copyright James T M Towill 

Lose yourself in a book about the reivers. Here are some of the books that have helped us create these webpages, and these and many more are usually available at the historic sites and museums listed above:

• The Reivers: the story of the Border Reivers by Alistair Moffat (2007)
• The Border Reivers by Godfrey Watson (1974)
• Tales of the Border Reivers
• The Debatable Land, the lost world between Scotland and England by Graham Robb (2018)
• The Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser (1971, reprinted 1995)
• The Place-Names of the Old County of Northumberland: the Cheviot Hills and Dales, by Jonathan West (2017)
• Northumberland Place Names, Goodwife Hot & others by Godfrey Watson (1970)
• Upper North Tynedale, a Northumbrian valley and its people by Beryl Charlton (1987)
• The Story of Redesdale by Beryl Chalrlton (1986, 2^nd edition 2007)
• Northumberland by Angus Lunn (2004)
• Towers and Bastles, Defensible Buildings in Northumberland by P F Ryder (2021)
• The Border Reivers: the Story of the Anglo-Scottish borderlands by Keith Durham and Angus McBride (1995, reprinted 1996)
• Border Reiver 1513-1603 by Keith Durham (2011)

Hexham Old Gaol. © Copyright Eirian Evans

Explore the world of the border reivers while you are out on the trails, or from your armchair. You could start with these websites:

• In search of the border reivers
• Border reivers, England’s North East
• The Border Reivers
• Border Reiver Heritage Society
• Border Reivers at the Roman Army Museum
• The Border Reivers and Hadrian’s Wall