A Glimpse of the Frontier: Black Middens Bastle House

In the 16th century, the “Debatable Land” sitting between England and Scotland had no time for national loyalty. Survival was a subscription service, and missing a payment was bad for your health.

We now think of “blackmail” as something that happens to politicians on laptops. It was, in fact, invented here, as a perfectly formal economic arrangement. The Scots word ‘mail’ meant rent. “Black rent” was what the powerful “Names” — the Armstrongs, the Elliots — charged for not burning your farm down¹Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” *English Heritage*, 17 June 2026. Pay up, and your cattle lived. Refuse, and your crops did not.

The sensible architectural response was the bastle house. Black Middens is the best example. Not a castle. Not a palace. A fortified farmhouse where the family slept upstairs, reached only by ladder, while the livestock sheltered in the thick-walled ground floor below. ²“History of Black Middens Bastle House.” English Heritage, 2026, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/black-middens-bastle-house/history/. Humble, practical, and harder to raid than it looked.

Then there is the truly spectacular absurdity of Reiver warfare. At the Battle of Pinkie in 1547, fighters from both sides were spotted making grand, theatrical charges at each other while taking considerable care not to actually hurt anyone.³Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” English Heritage, 17 June 2026. Border-kin mattered more than kings. It was less a battle than a rather dangerous piece of theatre.

The end came via “Jedburgh Justice” — hang first, ask questions later — which scattered these families to the four winds.They landed everywhere. Nixon. Johnson — US Presidents. And Neil Armstrong, who took a Reiver name all the way to the moon.⁴Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” *English Heritage*, 17 June 2026.

Not bad for a rabble of cattle thieves. The current incumbent of the US Presidency has no claim on their bloodline — his Scottish roots lie in the Isle of Lewis,  which is roughly 300 miles north of the Borders and about as culturally remote from the Reivers as it is possible to get. The cattle-lifting spirit, however, appears to have travelled rather well.

• 1
  Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” *English Heritage*, 17 June 2026.
• 2
  “History of Black Middens Bastle House.” English Heritage, 2026, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/black-middens-bastle-house/history/.
• 3
  Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” English Heritage, 17 June 2026.
• 4
  Matthews, Amy, host. “English Heritage Border Reivers Podcast.” *English Heritage*, 17 June 2026.