Mosspaul Saturday 2013

What a difference a week makes.....Glorious sunshine for the longest 'ride out' to Mosspaul , it's around 28 miles all told before the riders return and are lead into town by the Hawick Brass Band. Any riders who complete the full ride for the first time can become members of the Ancient Order of Mosstroopers     and wear their badge with pride.

Moss-troopers were bandits who operated in Scotland during and after the period of the English Commonwealth in the mid-17th century.
Many moss-troopers were disbanded or deserting soldiers from one of the Scottish armies of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They had kept their weapons and lived a life of banditry, attacking both civilians and Parliamentary soldiers for supplies during the Royalist rising of 1651 to 1654 when English Parliamentarian troops under George Monck occupied Scotland. Moss-troopers usually operated in small bands, either on the fringes of the Highlands or in the border regions. Many Highland lairds complained of moss-troopers' cattle-stealing and of how they incurred military reprisals against the Highlands as a whole.

So, because of the wonderful weather this week this blog post is photo rich and tells the story of the day.....please give the photos time to load..... there is also a video of the return into town at the bottom....