Scotland is Scotland, England is England, and so it always was. But between them in the 16th century was a fuzzy zone, a subject of dispute: around the Solway Firth, 10 miles north of Carlisle, were "the Debatable Lands".
Here, between the rivers Sark and Esk, is a hill endowed with a multitude of springs, whose slopes in days gone by were covered with an area of moss some two miles long and one mile wide. The springs maintained the moss in quagmire even in the driest summer - and formed Solway Moss.
Solway Moss has two entries in the history books. In November 1542, the armies of Henry VIII and James V, King of Scots, met on the Debatable Lands. The Scots were routed in a battle which is known as that of Solway Moss, since it is said that many of the retreating forces who escaped the English fell victims instead to the treacherous surface of the hillside bog.
James, disheartened, died just two weeks later, beginning the poignant saga of his daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.
Two centuries later came another Solway Moss disaster in November. Heavy rains over several days caused unprecedented flooding throughout Scotland and the north of England. These so engorged the Solway Moss that 229 years ago today it breached the wall of solid earth that contained its eastern end; mud poured down into the valley, choked a stream, and caused a lake to form over an extensive area.
A near-contemporary chronicler describes it vividly:-
"Early on November 17th, 1771, on a dark tempestuous night, the inhabitants of the plain were alarmed by a sudden and overwhelming irruption of the Solway Moss. Their dwellings were quickly surrounded with a thick black fluid, moving rapidly with large solid masses upon it, like floating islands, and deluging the extensive plain as it advanced; so that it was with difficulty and speed that the affrighted inhabitants gained the higher grounds, and escaped the feculent flood.
"Those who were aroused from their beds were obliged to fly, nearly in a state of nudity, and left their cattle and their furniture a prey to the black, nauseous inundation. The dawn of the next morning exhibited to them an awful scene of horror and desolation; their houses and fields were completely buried in a stagnant lake, which continued to increase for several weeks, until it extended over about 500 acres, and was, in places, some 30 ft in depth.
"The 28 families whose houses and farms lay ruined in this pitchy pool were reduced to great distress, having, as it was said, to begin totally their lives anew."