Most often they are lumped in with the Lowland Scots. But while a majority of them were nominally Scottish, they were in fact a distinctively homogenous race who stemmed from a very particular region, with its own unique history and culture. Today, the only trace of them in the popular consciousness is that many by the name of Armstrong or Elliott, Graham, Johnston or Bell are dimly aware, to their mock chagrin, that their ancestors were ‘sheep stealers from the north of England’. Perhaps handed down through the generations, the phrase is a cozy blanket thrown over a wild and bloody history. The ancestors in question were the Riding Clans of the Scots Borders. Their official, and most accurate, designation was the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers but these rustlers were known by a host of names: the Borderers, the Raiders, the Steel Bonnets, the Riding Clans, the Reivers. Robert Bell
‘Sheep stealers from the north of England’: the Riding Clans in Ulster by Robert Bell
Mapping of Ulster-Scots (ulsterscotsacademy.com)
named – Map your surname across the UK (publicprofiler.org)
MSE
