Kinmont William Armstrong, commonly known as though Rankest Reiver. Never one to shy away from a challenge.

born around 1530, the year his Uncle Johnnie Armstrong Aka John Of Gilnockie and his Father Alexander of Ghengils went to the gallows on the order of KingJames V.

Kinmont was aptly nicknamed, due to the village he was born in. It is believed the village of kinmont was situated around his father’s tower house Morton Rigg also known as Sark tower at the time of his birth.

Kinmont became a prolific Raider of his time, he was active long before his first recorded raid on 30th August 1583, he rode into the tarsetbairn ahead of three hundred Armstrongs and sacked eight dwellings, killing six people and riding off with hindsight and cattle.

Between the years of 1584 and 1586 he was on the campaign trail with the Earl of Arran against the Earl of Angus. Then ten years after his first initially recorded raid of 1583, he was back in the tarsetbairn in 1593 this time ahead of a thousand men. He sacked the entire area lifting two thousand head of beasts and three hundred pound in hindsight.

Then in 1596 his luck was to run out, after his capture after a meeting at the Tourneyholm, his fate was to be sealed at the gallows in Carlisle. But wait, the Duke of Buccleuch was outraged at this act of law breaking that the Duke himself gathered eighty of his borderers and hatched a plot to break kinmont out of Carlisle castle.

yes it was written in common law that once a truce day was called any man could go about his business without harassment or arrest. So there when kinmont was arrested the authorities broke their own laws. How quaint.

Thus cementing Kinmont as a local legend and a hero to the Armstrongs themselves. Come and learn about the legends of the Borders and their way of life.

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