Headline Here American Travelers Bell
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The Sunday Glitch November 20, 2006 Travel Page C-1 Headline here American travelers Bell... Burn... Dodd... teashop waitress in Bell- who have already seen Elliot... Graham... Hall... ingham nearby. Of course, much of Britain often have Johnstone... Little... Max- that’s old news. Castles ignored the borders, windy well... Nixon... Ridley... are always supposed to be moorland at the neck of Robley... Scott.... These haunted. As the wind stings the island. This sparsely- are some of the great- your face whistling down populated frontier between est names of the borders, the massive block fortress England and Scotland rolls and unless your Scandi- from across the empty through about 80 miles navian family borrowed moors, the chill you feel at between Berwick (pro- one of them, your ances- Hermitage may just be the nounced Bear-ick) on the tors bearing these names cold. Or it may not be. east coast and Carlisle on likely came from this barren Reivers fed hatred, hatred the west, generally follow- fought-over land. In fact, fed wars, and the great ing a military line drawn these were names of some border castles and ab- by the Romans between of the most nefarious bor- beys suffered the most. ancient adversaries nearly der rivers, as they called Before 1603, when Scot- 2,000 years ago. themselves. land and England united That was only the begin- Between about 1450 and under King James, the ning of centuries upon cen- 1600, bands of these fami- border was most strate- turies of horror haunting lies and others from either gic of demarcations, and a bleak land open to the the English or Scottish side some 100 castles guarded 20th century visitor, battles of the border robbed and from both sides. These and betrayals told through feuded from their great royal sentinels of medieval scores of ruined castles, stone fortresses, claim- power now stand mostly abbeys, and massive stone ing allegiance to neither in skeletal ruins, evocative walls. You find no glitzed king nor lawman, but only reminders of what once theme parks in the borders, to their family laird. The happened here. Some are no swank hotels or tours to lowland reivers are not intact, and many are open gimmicky made-up castles as famous today as the to the public. It is easy to with costumed natives highland clans, but they visit a dozen castles in a guarding souvenir shops. were as courageous and Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island offers a dramatic view of long weekend if you are the North Sea. Beaches in this area are open to swimmers in the And few chain stores in as fearsome, their lives a summer. traveling by car, the best these little towns. Even web of castles and kings, way to visit the borders. open to the public. fewer banalized malls and hangings and raids, in- of wild hills and muddy But kings and nobles Others, like the 13th fast food franchises. trigue and kidnapping, and copses pocked with black- played only part of the lore century Hermitage near Instead, borderers offer justice meted out by law- faced Scottish sheep and of the borders. The wall Newcastleton, were strong- mostly rough-and-ready men called wardens who redoubtable stone peels. built by Roman emperor holds not of the families but accommodation and hearty often also were themselves The “peel” tower is a kind Hadrian in A.D. 122 runs of the wardens who tried staple food at prices about reivers. It is a story of the of castle, but smaller, built 73 miles from Irish Sea to to control them and his- one-third down from tour- Old West three centuries in for a reiver clan to resist North Sea. Some of the tory documents a bloody isty norms. Add to that an advance. assaults of other families once 20-foot high stone trail of hideous torture and open welcome that reminds Visitors to the moors of or the law. Many late-medi- is gone, and the rest has extinction of life there. “Ev- you of going home. the reivers can trace their eval peels, like Smailholm, been beaten down by the eryone who’s been there Perhaps that’s what you paths through a raggedly six miles from Kelso, Scot- ages to more of a high say they get a feelin’ about are doing. Armstrong... beautiful, baleful vista land, and family castle of the Pringles, are intact and the place,” stated the stout fence. But an interpretive renouncing worldly plea- center near the excava- sures. Monks of these tion of Housesteads, a abbeys would rise at 2:30 second-century fort just a.m., pray in the unheated at the wall’s geographic stone chapel until sun- center near Haydon Bridge, rise, and spend the day in describes vividly how prayer or manual toil. They Romans lived in Britain. could not speak except Whom did they wish the in the “parlour,” (French: wall to keep out? This was “parler,” =to talk) and were before Scotland was Scot- seldom allowed to see land; likely Roman legions their families. It seems one quarreled against the Picts. society’s cult is another’s The barbarian tribe painted great religion. their bodies in gaudy colors The abbeys soon gained and attacked naked, even power and riches from the in winter. No wonder Ro- pilgrims or locals who paid mans believed a wall to be to save their souls. Wealth necessary. begat arrogance and Christianity was brought tempted greed. The great to Northumberland and medieval border abbeys northern England in the were put to ruin during 7th century, at Lindisfarne. wars of the 1500s, leaving The ruined priory and melancholy memorials to well-preserved castle of a pain-wracked age next Lindisfarne rise from the to the ancient castles and sea on Holy Island south of walls. For the thoughtful Berwick, accessible by a adult traveler anxious to causeway open only during avoid the banality of mod- low tide. Here Lindisfarne’s ern marketing, the borders monks established one of offer a site for quiet medita- the greatest scriptoriums tion and reflection. in the Christian world, 400 Practical Information: The years after the Romans, borders begin about 60 but still 600 years before miles from Edinburgh, the reivers. The Lindisfarne or about five hours by Gospel, illuminated about train from London. While A.D. 800, is on display facilities are modest, the at the British Museum in smaller towns nevertheless London. It is one of the have tourist offices, hotels, most famous documents of and B and Bs. For informa- Anglo-Saxon Christianity, tion write the Scottish Bor- a religion reaching back to ders Tourist Board, Munici- Jesus, but still apparently pal Buildings, High Street, quite different from what Selkirk TD7 4JX, U.K. we call Christianity today. A pilgrimage to the border abbeys might follow the plan of King David I of Scotland (1124-1153). This king tried to bring prestige and order to his country by founding four ab- beys, at Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose, and Dryburgh. These began as centers of monasticism, an ascetic way of life then in vogue which requires Christians to live simply and chastely, .