By a Newsnet Reporter
The 2012 season of the historic Border common ridings may have just two weeks left to run, but some would claim that two of the best of the season lie ahead.
Today, Friday 27th July the common riding spotlight falls on Langholm. For Langholmites, today is “Langholms Great Day” and many exiles will have made the journey from all corners of Scotland and beyond to hear the first Cryin o’ the fair in the Muckle Toon at 5am this morning.
By a Newsnet Reporter
The 2012 season of the historic Border common ridings may have just two weeks left to run, but some would claim that two of the best of the season lie ahead.
Tomorrow, Friday 27th July the common riding spotlight falls on Langholm. For Langholmites, today is “Langholms Great Day” and many exiles will have made the journey from all corners of Scotland and beyond to hear the first Cryin o’ the fair in the Muckle Toon at 9am this morning.
The festivities are set to go on throughout today and will culminate at 21:30 tonight when the town flag is returned to the town hall following its journey around the lands of the Royal Burgh in the hands of the Standard Bearer.
The Lauder Common Riding week gets underway this coming Sunday (29th July) and concludes with the main ride-out on Saturday 4th August.
From the 6th-12th August it is then the turn of Coldstream residents to celebrate their annual civic week which includes the historic ride-out to Flodden Field – scene of the infamous 1513 victory of the English over the Scots – on Thursday 9th August. Lost ancestors are yet commemorated!
The Border common ridings, town festivals and civic weeks are long steeped in history. The ‘riding of the marches’ in the Border towns is an annual event that stretches back centuries. Functionally, the ridings are to check the boundaries – or marches – of the common land held by the townsfolk.
In the days before Ordnance Survey it would not have been unusual to find that a neighbouring landowner had encroached! The communality of the ridings was important; it helped everyone to understand the boundaries and gave rise to the proud and oft repeated common riding saying: “it’s aw oor ain!”
To lead the ride-outs, or ‘ridings’, a figure-head would be appointed. This being someone who would give good representation of the town in any subsequent negotiations with neighbours and generally be counted on as an honest fellow.
Over the years, as the practical nature of the common ridings has given way to celebrations, the process of electing principals has formalised. ‘Cornet’, ‘Standard Bearer’, ‘Braw Lad’, ‘Callant’, ‘Reiver’, ‘Whipman’, ‘Honest Lad’, the pragmatic ‘Kelso Laddie’ and the prosaic ‘Melrosian’ and ‘Coldstreamer’; different towns may confer different titles on their chosen leading man and his lass, but the essential ingredients: honesty, integrity and a dedication to their home town and its traditions are the same.
The camaraderie of the ridings themselves have an almost military feel. Harking back to the days of the Border Reivers, when it was important that every man, woman and child in the borderlands was able to take to the saddle and defend their livestock and lands in the face of near constant cross border raiding and warfare.
Even nowadays, far from being a pass-time only for young girls of a pony club persuasion, horse-riding in the borders, is near-on ubiquitous.
As with all Scottish town festivities however, there is more to the Common ridings than simply the ride outs. When Lauder Common Riding week gets underway, with its Kirkin’ o’ the Cornet ceremony in Lauder Kirk on Sunday, a week of festivities will begin.
Fancy dress parades – possibly the biggest in the Borders – races, dinners, dances and sports will all prevail and the A68, one of the main trunk roads from Edinburgh into England, frequently has its traffic flow stopped as the townsfolk celebrate.
The Royal & Ancient Burgh of Lauder lays claim to one of the largest tracts of common good land still held by any burgh in Scotland. The site of the Cornet raising the town standard (flag) and leading upwards of 350 riders at a gallop over the heather moor to the burgess cairn is regarded by those-in-the-know as one of Scotland’s “must see” annual attractions.
If you haven’t been down to the Borders to witness the common ridings before, Newsnet Scotland can highly recommend the upcoming celebrations in Lauder or Coldstream. Failing that, there is always next year when Hawick will get the season started once again in June with what the renowned “Rough Guide” series has billed as “one of the best parties in the world!”
Newsnet note: In 2009, as part of the Scottish Governments Homecoming Scotland celebrations, a new website dedicated to attracting people to the Border common ridings was born. The site, www.returntotheridings.co.uk has been hugely successful in attracting new people to the common ridings and the Borders in general.