In pictures: Huge crowds for Selkirk Common Riding
- Published
![Selkirk Common Riding crowd](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/134A6/production/_130141097_230617001.jpg)
Selkirk Common Riding is one of the oldest Border festivals, with organisers claiming it can be traced back to 1113.
Huge crowds gathered in Selkirk at the weekend for its annual common riding celebrations.
Royal Burgh standard bearer Thomas Bell led the celebrations which see people on horseback ride the town's boundaries or "marches".
Selkirk Common Riding commemorates the events of 1513 when 80 men from the town left to fight for King James IV and just one returned.
The standard bearer represents Fletcher, the only Selkirk man, or "Souter", to return alive from the Battle of Flodden.
![Selkirk Common Riding horses](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/15BB6/production/_130141098_230617004.jpg)
![Selkirk Common Riding landscape](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/0072/production/_130141100_230617006.jpg)
Selkirk Common Riding claims to be one of the largest cavalcade of horses and riders in Europe
![Horses in Selkirk](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/182C6/production/_130141099_230617008.jpg)
![More horses in Selkirk](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/2782/production/_130141101_230617009.jpg)
![Selkirk Common Riding man](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/4E92/production/_130141102_230617012.jpg)
The event commemorates how one man returned to Selkirk after the Battle of Flodden
![Man with flag at Selkirk Common Riding](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/136FE/production/_130141697_b87ad89c-21c9-45f1-9295-13601a48ccc6.jpg)
Legend has it that he had a captured English flag which he swept low, like a scythe, to indicate that all the other man of Selkirk had been cut down.
![Huge crowd in Selkirk](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/9EA6/production/_130141604_230617014.jpg)
The Casting of the Colours ceremony is the highlight of the day
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