‘Hawick’s Reivers Festival’ offers an opportunity for all, young or old, to experience our rich Border Heritage. Focused on the turbulent 16th Century where ‘raid, blackmail and bloodfeud’ were the common currency, where strength was power, and wealth was won by the edge of a sword.
On Sunday 29th March, Wilton Lodge Park extends an open welcome, indeed it calls forth once more to all, be ye Douglas, Scott or Kerr. The call is join, join again those gallant names of old, Elliots, Turnbulls, Armstrongs and Johnsons all, and others, many too frightening to mention. Be counted in, come walk where Wallace walked, where wheel and Chiltern formed. Come along and find the Borderer within … and did we mention, entry is free.
Reivers are requested to join camp from 11am, camp will be raised by the banks of the Teviot upon the lands of the Barony of Wilton, to the North West of old Hawick, (Next to the Café).
An open welcome is extended to Reiver and camp follower alike, those set upon entering battle should come prepared for a weaponshaw around noon. Others are invited to celebrate this momentous occasion and share a feast of roasted hog.
Sit back for a while if you will and let others, more skilled, show mastery with falcon, mount, bow or sword. Soak up this rich heritage or take arms and test your border metal in combat practice. But waste no time, for other pressing matters await these wayward warriors, and camp will be struck swiftly at 4.00pm, after which it’ll be another year before these fellows trod this path again.
This year there will be not one but two groups of archers, Ettrick Forest Archers and the Southern Upland Roving Archers (SURA) the latter of which will be inviting the public to come along and try this ancient art for themselves.
And with "living history" very much to the fore the Knights of Monymusk do more than demonstrate the skills of the period. Why not come along and listen to the lady minstrel, or sit a while with the scribe, a story or two perhaps before watching the knights prepare for battle? But wherever you are, heed the words of the Black Monk, ‘beware of beggars and thieves’.
Need a break from the children? Why not have them enlist in the "army"?
Encouraged to ask questions and join in the fun: from listening to stories, trying on chain-mail and helmets, to archery. Or for the brighter sparks among them, mail-making writing with quills, herb-craft, playing simple instruments and making up their own designs for shields. Wondering what you’ll do without them, why not ask the fortune teller? Then you can visit the 16th Century blacksmith, try out the Hog Roast or visit the falcons, but don’t dally too long there’s still so much to see.
Horses in the Park! Well what Reivers Festival would be complete without horses? This year Wilton Lodge plays host to Les Amis de’Onno a renowned group of equestrian entertainers who promise to leave you in awe.
But before you go, answer me this, What links the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, the turbulent times of the Tudor age, the life on the Borders between England and Scotland through the 16th Century, the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th & early 19th Centuries; the times of Napoleon & Wellington; Nelson & Villeneuve and those heroes of fiction, Richard Sharpe, and Horatio Hornblower?
The answer, the “Best of Times; Worst of Times”, a group dedicated to the realistic re-enactment and recreation of those periods and times.