Once again coastal rowers are being invited to attend the Annan Harbour Festival with their St Ayles skiffs, and recreate in a race an attempted cross border raid from 1626.
This will be a raid on England, leaving 1 hr before high water from Annan Harbour, racing  the 3 miles over to Bowness on Solway, landing on the beach. Members of each crew will proceed to pub in the centre of village to recover a bell, the first crew arriving at pub have privilege of bringing bell back to Annan and the second crew will bring the  stand.  Crews will start together for the return leg. At  Annan  (estimate return 1 hr after high water) the bell will be reassembled and rung by the winning crew.
The race partially recreates a  raid in 1626 when some men from Annan raided and stole the bell at Bowness which was the maximum insult in those days.  We do however hope that our skiffs do better than those historic raiders who sadly, due to a combination of heavy bell, small boat and a lot of alcohol lost the bell in the Solway. The missing bell has never been found but apparently its watery ring is still heard from time to time.
For more details of this race on 7 May, and how to enter, see the 2016 Notice of Raid