Auld Wat Scott o’ Harden’s bugle horn

3D Model

This bugle horn belonged to ‘Auld Wat’, Walter Scott of Harden (1550-1629) in sixteenth century Scotland. Harden was the head of a powerful branch of the Scott family in the Scottish Borders, and renowned for leading his men into skirmishes with the English enemy, or enemies amongst rival Borderer families with whom the Scott family was at feud. Reputedly he used this horn to summon his armed followers to his side. It has been memorialised in ballads and fiction, as in Sir Walter Scott’s The Reivers Wedding:

He took a bugle frae his side - With names carved o’er and o’er He blew a note baith sharp and hie, Till rock and water rang around - Three score of moss-troopers and three Have mounted at that bugle sound.

Accession No.: NMS H.LT 45

Date: c.1550-1600 AD

Materials: bull’s horn; leather; iron

Dimensions: 460mm x 145mm x 210mm

Model information: produced by Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark in 2020 using 334 20mp images taken with a Canon 750D with a 60mm macro lens.