[MR] Wikipedia: Boghead Bastle House

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble friends, Especially fellow Scots,

Today's "Did You Know . . ." teaser on Wikipedia leads to a story about the
Boghead bastle house in Northumbria near the Scottish border. And there
lies an interesting tale that is typical of the conditions on both sides of
the border during the 16th century.

And what is a bastle house, you ask? They were small fortified farmhouses
built by both the Scots and the English during the chaotic lawless years
when border reivers raided each other for livestock, plunder, kidnapping,
revenge and general mayhem.

A bastle house was a small but substantial all-stone building often set
partly into the ground. The lowest level functioned as a barn, typically
with just one door (often defended from above through a "murder hole") and
usually unconnected to the floor above. The main floor was the farmer's
living space, with a single door reached by a ladder which could be pulled
up and defended by one or more adjacent slit windows. Sometimes the living
space had its own stone well. The attic above was used for sleeping and
storage, and was covered by a stone roof as protection against being set
ablaze by attackers. Sometimes two or more bastle houses were set facing
each other to provide mutual lines of fire for crossbows and muskets.

According to George MacDonald Fraser's STEEL BONNETS, there were some 60
Scottish and English "riding families" who were organized like medieval
mafiosi. Famous names included Armstrongs, Bells, Grahams, Humes, Kerrs,
Maxwells and Scotts. They preyed on each other from around 1500 to 1600.
Some families could put as many as 3,000 riders in the saddle from their
own numbers and their allies, though raiding was usually on a more "retail"
level. Both English and Scottish "border wardens" and their troops tried to
put a stop to the violence, but to no avail, and some wardens like Walter
Scott of Buccleuch were up to their necks in the raiding themselves. Once
King James had his royal butt on both thrones he sent in troops to arrest
and summarily hang some of the worst malefactors, and deported several
riding families *en masse* to Ulster. Walter Scott was so dangerous that
even King James feared his power. He went unpunished and was later raised
to Sir Walter Scott, Earl of Buccleuch.

The Wikipedia story goes on to tell the tale of theft and death after a
raid on the Boghead bastle house:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boghead_(bastle) . In this case, it was the
Scots who came out second best.

More about bastle houses can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastle_house .

Note that bastle houses were a step below "peel towers", little castles
that were sometimes smaller in footprint but had several stories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_tower . Often peel towers, like the
restored Smailholm Tower, were strongholds and headquarters for the
border reivers.

For more about the border reivers, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_reivers . I highly recommend Fraser's
STEEL BONNETS, both for its detailed history, but also as a very
entertaining read (he also wrote the famous Flashman novels).

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.