Reivers at Gilnockie Tower in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, from a 19th-century print Notorious raider Walter Scott of Harden 's horn, noted in a poem called "The Reiver's Wedding" by Sir Walter Scott.
Reiving was simply a way of earning a living. Scottish Reivers were just as likely to raid other Scots as to raid across the English Border. Scots and English would even join forces to raid on either side of the Border. The victims of reiving could be anyone from outside the immediate family.
Visitors who head north by road or rail for the Highlands and Islands often do not realise what they are missing by not stopping to savour the delights of the Border Lands, for centuries the stamping ground of the Border Reivers but now the peaceful homelands of the Anglo-Scottish Borderers.
The Border Reivers were well known for their violent nature, even in the waning years of the Reivers raiding become a rite of passage. An account of a raid in 1584 shows the numbers of Reivers who could be involved in a single raid with this single raiding party consisting of over 300 men.
Border Reivers: discover who they were and how they terrorised the ...
The Reivers: Directed by Mark Rydell. With Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, Ruth White, Michael Constantine. In turn-of-the-century Mississippi, an 11-year-old boy comes of age as two mischievous adult friends talk him into sneaking the family car out for a trip to Memphis and a series of adventures.
In the early Tudor period, northern nobles who had been weakened by the Crown lacked the authority and resources to suppress the reivers. Reiver practice was to rustle cattle.