Glasgow University

Glasgow University was founded in 1451. Scholars were engaged in the pursuit of truth here even as the Border Reivers were chasing each other on "hot trods". As time passed however, and the descendants of the Border Reivers came to embrace Presbyterianism and the rule of law, some of them too made a contribution to the world of learning. At least two of Glasgow University's most eminent graduates had Border Reiver surnames - the Lanarkshire-born anatomist William Hunter, after whom the Hunterian Museum is named, and the illustrious Lord Kelvin, who was born William Thomson of Scots-Irish stock.