Murder Cleugh

One of the oldest dated entries in this archive (predating even the disputed Ardwell inscription). Robert Lumsden, a local man with a reputation for pursuing married women and for violence, got a local woman, Isabella Sudden - of lower social standing than him - pregnant with his illegitimate child. On 20 July 1610 he chased her across the hills above Coquetdale and stoned her; she died of her injuries 15 days later, on 4 August. When the King's officers rode from Durham to arrest him, Lumsden reportedly told them 'I care nothing for the King, I care nothing for the Queen and I care nothing for you', grabbed their pistols and swords, and beat them off. He was eventually caught in Newcastle, but the punishment fell well short of the crime: he was made to publicly renounce his sins in the market place at Alnwick, was excommunicated from the Church, and served a month in jail - and was never tried or punished for the killing itself. The marker stone stands in a small stretch of woodland known locally as Murder Cleugh, high above Barrowburn in the Cheviot Hills, near the walking route to Windy Gyle.