Lady’s Well, Liddesdale ref1
Lake District ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Lanarkshire ref1
Lancashire ref1
Lancaster see also Vinnovium ref1
Lanercost Priory ref1, ref2
Langholm ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12
Buccleuch Hall ref1
Langholm Hills ref1, ref2
Langtoon see Longtown
Leith, Edinburgh ref1
Lewis, Isle of ref1
Lidalia (Liddesdale) ref1
Liddel, Barony of ref1
Liddel, Church of (Canonbie) ref1
Liddel Moat (or Liddel Strength) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Liddel Water ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17, ref18, ref19, ref20, ref21, ref22, ref23, ref24, ref25, ref26
as boundary of DL ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
confluences ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Liddelbank (Cumbria) ref1
Liddesdale ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17
as March ref1, ref2, ref3
geography ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
present-day ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16
Lincolnshire ref1
Lindesey region ref1
Lindum (Castledykes) ref1, ref2
Lindum (Lincoln) ref1
Linnuis region ref1
Lochmaben (Dumfries & Galloway) ref1
Lochmaben Stone (DL) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Londinium ref1, ref2, ref3
London ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11
Longtown (Cumbria) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11
Longtown Mart ref1, ref2
Low Borrowbridge Roman fort (Epiacum) ref1
Lowlands, Scottish ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Luguvalium (Carlisle) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Lune river and valley ref1
Lyne river ref1, ref2, ref3
Macdonald clan ref1
Manchester ref1
Mangerton, Newcastleton ref1
March Bank see Scots’ Dike
March Bank Hotel ref1
Marche, French province ref1
Marches, English and Scottish ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
boundaries ref1, ref2, ref3
Marches, Welsh ref1
Massilia (Marseille) ref1
Mecca ref1
Mediolanum (Whitchurch) ref1
Melrose (Scottish Borders) ref1
Mere Burn see Muir Burn
Mexico ref1
Middle Shires ref1, ref2
Milnholm Cross, Newcastleton ref1
Moat (Cumbria) ref1, ref2
Monke Rilande Burn (DL) ref1
Mons Graupius, Battle of (AD 83?) ref1
Morton see Tower of Sark
Moss Patrick Swire, Liddesdale ref1
Mother Goddesses of Every Nation temple ref1
Mountain View, Liddesdale ref1
Muir Burn / Mere Burn (DL) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Nantes, France ref1
Nashville, Tennessee ref1
Netherby (Cumbria) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Netherby Estate ref1, ref2, ref3
Netherby Hall ref1, ref2, ref3
Netherby Roman fort and town see Castra Exploratorum
New Woodhead Farm (DL) ref1
New York City ref1
Newcastle upon Tyne ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Newcastleton Forest ref1
Newcastleton (Scottish Borders) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14
as Copshawholm ref1, ref2
school ref1
Newstead Roman fort ref1, ref2, ref3
Nicholforest church (St Nicholas) ref1
Nicholforest parish ref1, ref2
Normandy ref1, ref2
Norse Lands ref1
North Pole ref1
North Sea ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Northern Ireland ref1, ref2
Northumberland, county ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Northumbria, kingdom ref1, ref2
Note o’ the Gate pass (Scottish Borders) ref1
Notebery Hill (DL) ref1
Old Graitney, Gretna ref1
The Old North (Yr Hen Ogledd) ref1
Old Toll Bar tearoom, Gretna ref1
Orkney ref1
Otterburn, Battle of (1388) ref1
Oxenholme Station ref1
Oxford ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Paris ref1, ref2
Pennine Hills ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Penrith (Cumbria) ref1, ref2
Penrith Station ref1
Pentland Hills ref1
Penton (Cumbria) ref1, ref2
Penton Bridge ref1, ref2
Penton Wood ref1
Perthshire ref1, ref2
Peter’s Crook (Cumbria) ref1
Petmen Hill (DL) ref1
Plumpe (DL) ref1
Portsmouth (Hampshire) ref1
Priesthaugh, Hawick ref1
Pyngilburne (DL) ref1
Pyngilburne Know (or Pyngilknow) (DL) ref1
Queen’s Mire, Eskdale ref1
Queen’s Mire, Liddesdale ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Raegill Burn (DL) ref1
Reamy Rigg (DL) ref1
Reddenburn (Redden Burn) ref1
Redesdale (Northumberland) ref1, ref2, ref3
Reims, France ref1
‘Reiver Trail’ ref1
Rheged, kingdom ref1, ref2
Rheged, visitor centre ref1
Rhine river ref1
Ribchester (Lancashire) ref1
Riccarton Farm, Liddesdale ref1
Riccarton (Scottish Borders) ref1
Righeades (DL) ref1
Rio Grande ref1
Riverview Holiday Park, Mangerton ref1
Roadhead (Cumbria) ref1
Rockcliffe (or Rocley) (Cumbria) ref1
Roman Wall see Hadrian’s Wall
Rome ref1, ref2, ref3
Roscommon, Ireland ref1
Rowanburn (Dumfries & Galloway) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Roxburghshire ref1
Rutterford (DL) ref1, ref2
Sanquhar (Dumfries & Galloway) ref1
Sark see Tower of Sark
Sark, Battle of (or Battle of Lochmaben Stone) (1448) ref1
Sark Bridge, Gretna ref1
Sark river ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Sarkfoot (Cumbria) ref1
Saughtree, Liddesdale ref1
Scotch Dyke Station ref1
Scots’ Dike / March Bank ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Scottish Borders, region ref1, ref2
Shap (Cumbria) ref1, ref2
Signal Box Cottage, nr Hawick ref1
Skurrlywarble Wood (Cumbria) ref1, ref2, ref3
Skye, Isle of ref1
Soleme Moss see Solway Moss
Solewath / Sulwath see Solway Firth
Solway Firth ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16
as DL boundary ref1, ref2
as national border ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Solway Moss ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
eruption (1771) ref1
Solway Moss, Battle of (1542) ref1, ref2
Solway Plain ref1, ref2, ref3
Solwaybank, edge of DL ref1
Sorbonne, Paris ref1
Sorbytrees Farm, Liddesdale ref1
South Shields (Tyneside) ref1, ref2
South Tyne Valley ref1
Southern Uplands, Scotland ref1
Spain ref1, ref2, ref3
Standing Stone, Tinnis Hill (DL) ref1, ref2, ref3
Stanwix, Carlisle ref1, ref2, ref3
Staplegordon (Dumfries & Galloway) ref1
Steele Road End Cottage, Liddesdale ref1
Stonegarthside Hall, Liddesdale ref1
Strathclyde, kingdom ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Sussex ref1
Syria ref1
Tardwoth (Torduff) (Dumfries & Galloway) ref1
Tarras Moss ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
siege of (1601) ref1
Tarras Water (DL) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Tassies Height / Tassies Holm Roman fort and camps ref1
Teviotdale ref1, ref2, ref3
Thames river ref1
Thorniewhats / Ye Thornwhate (DL) ref1
Tinnis Hill (Scottish Borders) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Tinnisburn Forest ref1, ref2
Tophous (DL) ref1
Toplyff Hill (DL) ref1, ref2
Torback Hills (DL) ref1
Torbrack Hill (Torbeck Hill) (DL) ref1
Tower of Sark (Morton Tower) (DL) ref1, ref2, ref3
Trent river ref1
Tres Karras, unidentified place on border ref1
Tribruit river or estuary ref1, ref2, ref3
Trimontium (Newstead) ref1
Trimontium (Whitley Castle) ref1, ref2
Tweed Basin ref1
Tweed river ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Tweedmouth, Berwick upon Tweed ref1
Tyne river ref1, ref2, ref3
Tynedale ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
United Kingdom ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
United States of America ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Unthank Hall, Haltwhistle ref1
Uxellodunum / Uxellum (Stanwix) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Vindogara, bay ref1
Vindogara (Ayr or Patna) ref1
Vinnovium (Lancaster) ref1
Wales ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Walton Moss (Cumbria) ref1, ref2, ref3
Warb Law, Langholm ref1
Washington DC ref1
‘The Watergate’, Liddesdale ref1
West Country, England ref1
Westminster ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Westmorland, county ref1
Whisgills (Scottish Borders) ref1
White Law, Cheviots ref1, ref2
White Sark river see Sark
Whitehall, London ref1
Whithaugh, Newcastleton ref1, ref2
Whitlawside (DL) ref1
Whitley Castle Roman fort (Trimontium) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Whitrope Hass (‘the Edge’) ref1
Widdrington (Northumberland) ref1
Wigan (Lancashire) ref1
Winchester (Hampshire) ref1
Windgate Fell, Cheviots ref1
Windy Edge (DL) ref1, ref2
Windy Gyle, Cheviots ref1
Windy Swire, Liddesdale ref1
Windyhill (DL) ref1
Wobrethills (DL) ref1, ref2
Workington (Cumbria) ref1, ref2
Yetholm Common, Anglo-Scottish border ref1
York ref1, ref2, ref3
York Castle ref1
Yorkshire ref1, ref2
1. ‘North East View of the City of Carlisle’, by Robert Carlyle (1791): the cathedral, the castle and the Eden bridges, from the vallum of Hadrian’s Wall, looking south to the Lake District.
2. A Northbound freight train on the Waverley Line near Riccarton Junction, in June 1965, climbing to ‘the Edge’ (the northern limit of Liddesdale). Photograph by Maurice Burns.
3. Joan Blaeu’s map of ‘Lidalia’ (Liddesdale), 1654, based on Timothy Pont’s survey, conducted c.1590.
4. Part of the Debatable Land on Blaeu’s ‘Lidalia’. Right: Tinnis Hill and Mere Burn descending to the Liddel. Bottom left: the Scots’ Dike.
5. Liddel Water in early December 2010: England on the right, the former Debatable Land (now part of Scotland) on the left.
6. The Solway Firth near the Lochmaben Stone, looking south to the Lake District, August 2014.
7. Statue of King Edward I in Burgh by Sands, commemorating the seven hundredth anniversary of his death on the Solway Sands in 1307.
8. ‘Gilnockie [sic] – or Johnny Armstrong’s Tower (Dumfries-shire)’ by Henry Adlard from an original study by Thomas Allom, 1837. The true name of Armstrong’s home above the Esk is Hollows Tower. Both banks of the river lie in the former Debatable Land.
9. Statue of ‘Lang Sandy’ in Rowanburn. ‘Lang Sandy’ (Alexander Armstrong) was hanged in 1606 for the murder of Sir John Carmichael, Warden of the Scottish West March.
10. Hermitage Castle, seen from the ruins of its fourteenth-century chapel, April 2016.
11. ‘A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England’, drawn by an anonymous cartographer for William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer of England, in December 1590. The map shows the towers and bastles of the clans or surnames of Liddesdale, Eskdale and the Debatable Land.
12. ‘Walter Scott Esqr’. Engraving by Charles Turner after Henry Raeburn, 1810. The ruin in the background is Hermitage Castle.
13. The Lochmaben Stone near Gretna, the ancient, wordless monument to inter-tribal and Anglo-Scottish relations at the south-western tip of the Debatable Land.
14. Henry Bullock’s map of the Debatable Land, drawn in the spring of 1552.
15. ‘Mile-Castle near Caw-Fields’, on a reivers’ route from Liddesdale to Tynedale. From The Roman Wall by the Rev. John Collingwood Bruce (1851).
16. The Scots’ Dike (in England) or March Bank (in Scotland), built to mark the partition of the Debatable Land in 1552.
17. Thomas Scrape, tenth Baron Scrape of Bolton, and his mother Margaret Howard, shortly before his appointment as Warden of the English West March in 1593 at the age of twenty-six. Anonymous portrait.
18. Scrope’s deputy, Robert Carey, first Earl of Monmouth. Anonymous portrait, c. 1591.
19. Richard Beavis, ‘The Rescue of Kinmont Willie’, 1872. No contemporary portraits survive of ‘Kinmont Willie’ and ‘the Bold Buccleuch’, who rescued him from Carlisle Castle in 1596. The horses and the armour belong to a slightly later period.
20. Kirkandrews church and graveyard, looking towards the Grahams’ pele tower and the Scots’ Dike, March 2016.
21. Hills Tower, Lochfoot, four miles south-west of Dumfries: a tower house or bastle with gatehouse and barmkin built c. 1530 for the Maxwell family, many of whom served as wardens of the Scottish West March. The more comfortable house on the left was added in 1721. Photographed from the south-west in 1911.
22. A farm track on the line of the lost Roman road leading north from the Debatable Land into Tarras Moss, September 2013.
23. The British Isles according to Ptolemy’s coordinates (c. AD 150), plotted by Jacob d’Angelo in Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei Alexandrini (1467).
24. A Roman cavalryman trampling a British barbarian, first century AD. In Hexham Abbey, probably removed from the Roman fort at Corbridge. A similar tombstone was discovered in 1787 in the wall of Stanwix church (Carlisle).
25. The ‘Border Reiver’ statue (2003) on Kingstown Road, Carlisle.
Acknowledgements
It will be obvious how much this book owes to Margaret, but not how much of the Border world was illuminated by her work for North Cumbria Magistrates’ Court, Cumbria NHS, the Corporation Board of Carlisle College, the School Admission Appeals Panel, the Society of Friends, the Liddesdale Heritage Centre (Newcastleton) and the rural library Book Drop with its vast and undervalued constituency. Crucially, she was instrumental in saving the cross-border 127A bus service, for which I and many others also have to thank Cllr Val Tarbitt, Rory Stewart MP and the parish councils of Kirkandrews-on-Esk and Nicholforest.
Several people who should have been named on this page would prefer
not to be publicly thanked. I kept a list of their names and realized, when I came to write these acknowledgements, that it looked like one of the medieval wardens’ lists of reiving families. Each surname is sufficiently well represented in the modern population for the list to be properly impersonal: Calvert, Carlyle, Davidson, Dixon, Dunn, Elliot, Forster, Little, Nichol, Ridley, Robson and Storey.
For documentary help, I am grateful to the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the National Library of Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Cumbria Archive Centre, Carlisle Public Library, Tullie House Museum, the Clan Armstrong Trust and, for equally vital assistance, to Bikeseven, Cumbria Woodlands, the Graham Arms, Joan’s Cars, Telford’s Coaches, and the postmen and postwoman of Longtown.
Alison Robb and Stephen Roberts kindly scrutinized the almost-finished text.
I was privileged to have as my editor Kris Doyle at Picador. I am also grateful to Starling Lawrence, to everyone at W. W. Norton and to Melanie Jackson. I enjoyed the unstinting support of Paul Baggaley, Nicholas Blake, Wilf Dickie, Camilla Elworthy, Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly and the whole Picador team. On expeditions to that remote capital of the far South, Rogers, Coleridge & White was a home from home.
GRAHAM ROBB was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He is an acclaimed historian and biographer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has won the Whitbread Biography Prize and the Heinemann Award for Victor Hugo, as well as the Ondaatje Prize and Duff Cooper Prize for The Discovery of France. His book Parisians was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller in hardback and paperback. He lives on the Anglo-Scottish border.
Also by Graham Robb in Picador
BALZAC
VICTOR HUGO
RIMBAUD
STRANGERS
Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century
THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE
PARISIANS
An Adventure History of Paris