Be it museums, galleries, crafts, stately homes, fine foods, gardens, bird-watching, deep-sea diving, sea-fishing, river fishing, walking, cycling, golfing or gliding, there is always plenty going on in The Borders to make your stay enjoyable.  Annual events include The Jim Clark Rally, the Melrose Book festival,  steeplechasing at Kelso – Britain’s friendliest course,  the annual festival of walking at various venues, the Newcastleton Music Festival, equestrian events, seven-a-side rugby tournaments and many more.  View the Border Events web site for a full list of activities.

However, The Common Ridings on the Scottish side of the border are quite and make the region very special.  From June till late August, every year, the Border towns reverberate to the clatter of horses hooves as a principal rides through the streets followed by up to 300 riders.  It is a sight to behold.  Horsemanship is a Borders trait.  The reivers were superb horsemen, reputed to be the best light cavalry in Europe.  After meeting one Reiver,  Queen Elizabeth I is quoted as saying that with ten thousand such men, James (VI) could shake any throne in Europe.

The most ancient Common Ridings have strong associations with The Battle of Flodden in 1513.  At first all of the townsfolk either walked or rode the boundaries, headed by the Provost.  Later, ceremony replaced necessity and a principal young man carried the town’s flag.  This ancient custom has now been honed, perfected and extended so that each Scottish Border town has a full week of festivities based on riding the marches.  Towns like Selkirk, Hawick and Lauder like to think their common ridings are the oldest but this is not the case.  The central purpose was to patrol the marches or boundaries of the town’s common land and check that no neighbouring landowner had encroached.  Customary rights had to be asserted. Berwick was doing this in 1438, and because theirs was also an international boundary, they had to be extra vigilant

Since they follow ancient traditions such as “the first Friday after the second Monday in June” there can be no specific dates for The Common Ridings and Civic Weeks.  However, the time-honoured tradition is:

June

July

Jedburgh
Duns
Kelso   
Innerleithen
Langholm Common Riding

August

Coldstream
Lauder Common Riding