Jedburgh Ba' Game
Twice a year the entire town of Jedburgh divides into Uppies and Doonies to contest a football match with no fixed rules, no referee and no pitch boundaries through the streets and closes of the town, a tradition said to derive from the use of an English soldier's head after a medieval border battle.
A compact, well-stocked Borders town punching well above its weight: a royal abbey, a celebrated bakery, a monthly market, and enough genuine history to fill a proper afternoon without padding.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Jedburgh, Scottish Borders.
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"Lauder's Common Riding is one of the most intimate of the Borders festivals, with a mounted Cornet leading riders along the ancient marches of this small market town on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills."
Lauder Common Riding
"Coldstream's civic week climaxes with the Coldstreamer leading a mounted rideout to Flodden Field, honouring the Borderers who fell in the 1513 battle in one of the most moving riding ceremonies in Scotland."
Coldstream Civic Week
"The sport's ultimate contest held only every three years in the region widely considered the birthplace of the Border Collie, where handlers from across the world gather at Huntington Farm for five extraordinary days."
World Sheepdog Trials
"Cornet and mounted supporters ride the marches to drum and fife, commemorating a 1514 skirmish."
Hawick Common Riding
"Hundreds of riders follow the standard bearer round the burgh boundaries in the oldest of the Borders common ridings."
Selkirk Common Riding
"One of the Scottish Borders' best-loved civic weeks, the Melrose Festival culminates in a horseback rideout through the shadow of the Eildon Hills and the crowning and installation of the Festival Queen on the Thursday."
Melrose Festival
"On Easdale Island, accessible only by foot ferry, competitors skim slates across a flooded quarry pool on the last Saturday of summer, in the world's only skimming championship held on a Scottish island with no cars and a population of around 60."
World Stone Skimming Championships
✦ Weird and Wonderful"At the stroke of midnight villagers light ten-foot tarred birch torches and parade them behind a pipe band before hurling the flames into the River Earn."
Comrie Flambeaux
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Up to a thousand torch-bearing guizers in Viking dress march through the dark and set a full-size longship galley ablaze."
Up Helly Aa
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Named for the spectral black dog that terrorised St Mary's Church in 1577, this brilliant folklore festival fills the town with art, parade, storytelling and a ritual burning of demons."
Black Shuck Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful"At the Barley Mow pub in Bonsall village, hens race over a thirty-foot course in heats building to a grand final, watched by enthusiastic crowds who take this Derbyshire Peak District tradition with exactly the gravity it deserves."
Bonsall World Championship Hen Racing
✦ Weird and Wonderful"The village of Heather, Kings Award winner, goes cheerfully insane each August as gardens fill with hundreds of scarecrows depicting celebrities and topical characters, all competing for votes from the crowds who walk the trail with a guide booklet."
Heather Scarecrow Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful