Traces of the Reivers

Related pages: | Border Reivers | Reiver Life | Reiver Country | End of the Reivers |

Ruins everywhere
The borders area is literally dotted with castles, stately homes, the ruins of historic abbeys, fortified farmhouses (bastles), the scattered remains of pele towers and the atmospheric remnants of abandoned hamlets or howfs, hidden up the remote side valleys. The fields of battle and the reiver graveyards all bear testament to the turbulent history that marked these lands and those times.

"...the defenders hurled anything they could, stones, hot oil, at the attackers."

Pele Towers
By far the most abundant, peles were small stone buildings with walls from 3 to 10 feet thick, square or oblong in shape. Designed to withstand short sieges they were virtually impregnable against raiders and marauders and were lived in by the rich and poor alike.

They usually consisted of three storeys - a tunnel-vaulted ground floor which had no windows, which was used as a storage area and which could accommodate animals. The first floor contained a hall and kitchen, and the top floor was space for living and sleeping. The battlemented roof was normally flat for look-out purposes, and to allow arrows to be fired at raiders and missiles hurled down on unwanted visitors.

Access to a pele tower could be gained through two sets of doors, the outer made of iron the inner of oak. To ensure the tower's defences were complete, windows in the peles were very small and kept to a minimum. Border pele towers can date from as early as the thirteenth to as late as the seventeenth century, but were all built to very much the same pattern. Some towers were built onto churches to act as both pele tower, and bell tower.

Bastle Houses
Bastle houses are a variation on the pele tower, but are a lot less common. These are fortified farm houses rather than tower houses and tend to be found in remoter areas of the border country, usually not far from the border itself.

"The upper floor could be reached from the outside by a ladder which was then pulled up after the climber."

Bastle houses are one of the most distinctive building types of the uplands of the Border Counties. The bastle house was a strong two-storey building with walls over 4 feet thick. The roof was steeply pitched and covered with stone slabs. Again, the basement was a shelter for livestock and had a strong door which was bolted form the inside.

A trapdoor in the ceiling was the means to reaching the upper level living space. The upper floor usually had two or three rooms but, again, very few windows. The upper floor could be reached from the outside by a ladder which was then pulled up after the climber. Ladders ended at heavily bolted doors. Steps have been built in place of the ladders in renovated bastle houses for tourists.