In the Borders, that area either side of the bloodily contested and frequently redrawn line between Scotland and England, it's easy to see how highly man prizes the marking of territory. A simple line on a map brings with it enormous cultural and social implications every time it shifts to north or south. Yet within the Borders area, as Richard Uridge discovers, lie smaller but equally powerfully defended areas, borders which stretch back far beyond the origins of relatively modern national disputes.
Richard begins his search for borders within the , in the company of the Scottish Borders Council archaeologist Rory MacDonald. Looking up at the mile-long scar on the hillside which marks the boundary of an Iron Age fort, Rory questions the widely accepted notion that these forts were built for defensive purposes. Instead, he suggests, they were a way of marking the edge of a defined space which might have been used for social gatherings, as a meeting place for ancient peoples, for whom the Eildons would have been a very obvious landmark.
At is a village green which has been a gathering place for gypsies for centuries. Tom Tokely's grandfather taught him to take an interest in the local gypsy heritage, which had its roots in their persecution in Scotland under successive kings. It was James V who finally drove them out, threatening the gypsies with drowning for every woman and hanging for every man, and they came to shelter and to make a living in the Borders. Every year they still meet at St Boswells, and Tina Lee, a Romany gypsy, tells Richard why this traditional meeting at a place of safety is fundamental to the continuation of the gypsy way of life.
At , near Alnwick, on the English side of the Border, is kept a unique herd of cattle. They've been enclosed since the thirteenth century, and Austen Widdows, the warden at Chillingham, explains how their unique genetic make-up has remained unchanged since then. Touring the cattle park, Richard hears how the cattle elect their own king bull, and respect not only his authority, but the invisible borders which divide the park into smaller territories for parts of the herd. Enclosed by a huge and ancient wall, the cattle have also constructed their own, natural boundaries between each other.
Selkirk is just one of the Borders towns which still holds a , an ancient ritual which ensures that the town boundaries are checked on horseback each year. Hundreds of townspeople turn out to follow the Standard Bearer, this year Scott Hermiston, and to witness the Casting of the Colours, a ceremony which dates back to the battle of Flodden. The Provost of Selkirk, Chalmers Stillie, explains why the marking of the boundaries, which to outsiders might seem purely ceremonial, is still of vital importance to the town.
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