Last weekend I went down to the town of Kirk Yetholm for the UK Border Walk by Rocca Gutteridge and Claudia Zeiske, and an article will be forthcoming online at Line Magazine, but for now, I’m more interested in the presence of The Travellers and Gypsies in Scotland.

Yetholm itself is a Romany town, where The last of the Gyspy Royals gathered as recently as 2010 for a reunion as the town itself has a long history of Gypsies. Histories, guides, and education for and about Scottish Gypsies and Travellers can be found online with varying accounts, all not telling you much except that the history and definitions of being a Traveller or Gypsies are long and winding — much like the paths they’ve covered. 

There’s been some travellers down by the Deveron River in Huntly over the last few months, though with the recent rising of the tides, their camp ground at the bend  has been deserted, surrounded only by deep mud tire tracks. The handful of news stories about the August flood only focused on the temporary evacuation of the Meadows senior center, but nothing was at all mentioned about the forced relocation of the travellers. 

I think a few of the caravans have stayed in Huntly, just moved further up the bank, though I can’t be completely sure as I never counted, but I do believe I hear the same dogs when I walk by. I didn’t even realize they may have been the same group as there’s no longer a communal set up as everything is forced to be far more self-contained, including the dogs who are now locked inside in this far less private area. A flood is a flood, and a flood affects everyone living close to it.