Red Hill folk

The Red Hill Folk or Cerens were a group of Eriadorian tribesmen who inhabited the Pinnath Ceren in northwestern Minhiriath and south of Buckland and the Old Forest. They were largely the descendants of Downsmen and Cardolanian Northmen, and were known for their stern and aggressive behaviour that often led to troubles with their peace-loving Hobbit neighbours. The Freeholders of Pinnath Ceren became more and more isolated in the centuries following the final dissolution of Cardolan. Many of their mines were abandoned, some being invaded by goblins from the Underdeeps. The surviving mannish inhabitants of the Red Hills allied periodically with Hobbits from the Southfarthing and Buckland to battle these enemies and others from the south and east.

The villages along the northern edge of the hills, known collectively as the Red Hundred, hung on through the Third Age, trading with Hobbits, Rivermen, Dwarves, and the folk of the Greyflood settlements. The Hobbits of Buckland made such alliance with them as could be managed with a "scandalously rough-mannered bunch"; together they faced down an invasion of Saruman's ruffians in 3018.

In The Lord of The Rings books

In the Lord of the Rings books it is stated that no men had settled dwellings so far west or within a hundred leagues of the Shire (near the end of the Third Age). On the other hand it is stated in the Lord of the Rings that the Hobbits of the Southfarthing had troubles with men, indicating the presence of men near the southern borders of the Shire, probably along the Baranduin. This might either indicate that these men who lived south of the Shire might have been either nomads, or at least that their settlements were small, thinly populated or unstable in comparison to Bree-land and the Shire.