Langholm is ready to party

EXCITEMENT is at fever pitch in Langholm as the 2025 Common Riding finally dawns. It’s the town’s big day and at the helm will be this year’s cornet Ewan Patterson leading his mounted supporters around the ancient boundaries of the town. He will have an early start when the flute band circulate the town at 5 am waking everyone up. The first event after that is the hound trail then the focus switches to the town centre for the 8.30 am presentation of the town’s standard to the Cornet and the first fair crying, followed by a ride up the hill. The town band, emblem procession, pipe band and heather besom procession precede the second fair crying at 11.15 am. The Castleholm is the place to be this afternoon with horse racing from midday, as well as Highland dancing, athletics and games, from 1.30 pm. Highlights will be the Ashleybank 1000 Guineas 90m handicap footrace, The Welcome to Langholm UK 90m sprint championship; and the Borders High Jump Championship. It all starts to wind down with dancing on the Castleholm with music by Langholm Town Band from 7 pm, then the procession forms up to return to the Market Place for the closing ceremonies at 9.15 pm. We’ll be live streaming parts of the day on our social media and there’ll be a photo feature in next week’s paper.