Last week saw Kenneth Erik Moffatt make a historic pilgrimage to London to claim his right as a Freeman of the City – a right that let him carry a sword through the city and deliver it to Goldsmiths Hall as his entry in its prestigious competition for 2010.

In the Moffatt family workshops at Teviothead near Hawick, Kenneth spent more than 2,000 hours creating the new Scottish basket-hilted sword.

Fashioned and chased in yellow gold and silver, the pictorial narrative decorating the sword’s basket guard illustrates the heroic 16th-century Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong.

One of the most notorious of all Border reivers, Armstrong and his men were hanged without trial from the trees at Caerlenrig, in Teviotdale, in 1530, by the young King James V.

The sword’s wooden hilt is carved from root hawthorn, cut from a hedgerow at Caerlenrig, with knotwork of the style found on early Scottish dirks, and occasionally swords.

The weapon also utilises a genuine 16th- century blade, signed by a legendary swordsmith, which had been in the possession of the Moffatt family for generations.

Starting from the ruins of Armstrong’s old stronghold of Gilnockie Tower, near Canonbie, and accompanied by his father Brian, Kenneth was piped off to the old tune Johnnie Armstrong, by two of the region’s finest exponents of the Border pipes, Matt Seattle and Bill Telfer.

The journey included a blessing at the shrine of St Eloi, the patron saint of Goldsmiths, at St Giles Cathedral, in Edinburgh.

In London, Kenneth was welcomed at the Tower of London, before being escorted into the city by a Yeoman Warden, to claim his ancient right, as a freeman. He received a blessing at St Paul’s Cathedral, before the final part of the journey from the Guildhall to Goldsmiths Hall.

Kenneth was first granted Freedom of the Company of Goldsmiths and of the City of London in 2008 by redemption – which means he had at least 15 years continual service and had made a significant contribution to the trade.

Back home in Teviotdale this week, he told TheSouthern that the motivation for the journey was primarily as an expression of art and culture from the Borders, an area he described as one of the most remarkable and magical regions of Britain, and one which he says is today also one of its most politically- ignored and forgotten.

“The blade had been in the family for many years without a hilt, and dates to the 16th century.