Skye Boat Song

Tomoe, Roger, John, Anna, Lillian

On the right is Granny, Lillian (Davis) Doss, my grandfather's mother. She says she's part Scottish, which would make me an eighth of whatever part Scottish she was.

In my genealogical struggles to locate my Scottish ancestors, I find myself pulled to music from Scotland - fiddle tunes, Celtic harp, folk songs and a limit of bagpipe tunes.

A friend of a friend pointed me to Skye Boat Song, a Highland rowing measure. I will be singing this song at my concert. I found it in the level one book for Royal Conservatory of Music. This book lists its source: Songs of the North, Gathered from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland.  The bottom of the page reads: After the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart spent five months in the highlands and islands of Scotland, on the run from British troops with a price of thirty thousand pounds on his head. In June of 1746, he escaped to the Island of Skye with Flora Macdonald and a handful of loyal highlanders. The first four measures of the melody were taken down from the singing of Hebridean boatmen. The remainder was added by A.C. Macleod.

I looked up two words in the lyrics: Culloden and Claymore.
A Claymore is a huge, two-handed sword used during the 14th - 17th century. This pre-dates the battle of Culloden. By the mid 18th century, one-handed, lighter broadswords were used. The use of the word Claymore in the song is of a romantic notion.



Culloden, pronounced  kəˈlɒd ^ə n the ə is a "uh" sound like in "cup" and the ɒ is the "o" sound in "odd." The accent of the cu-LODD-n is the second syllable, its position in the music fitting the beat well. Culloden is a field where a battle between the Scots and the English was fought, or more correctly, supporters of the Stuart king, Bonnie Prince Charles, and supporters of the Hanoverian King of England. The highlanders charged with their swords straight into British artillery. About two thousand Scots died with only about five hundred British.
CHORUS
Speed, bonnie boat like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that was born to be king,
Over the sea to Skye.

VERSE 1
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves road,
thunderclouds redn the air.
Baffled our foes stand by the shore.
Follow they will not dare.

VERSE 2
Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep.
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep,
watch by your weary head.

VERSE 3
Many's the lad, fought on that day,
well the Claymore can wield.
When the night came, silently lay,
dead on Culloden's field.

VERSE 4
Burned are their homes, exile and death,
scatter the loyal men.
Yet ere the sword, cool in the sheath,
Charlie will come again.