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The Braes o Gleniffer

Date August 1954
Track ID 10801
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1954.97.B4

Original Tape ID

SA1954.097

Summary

The singer recalls happy times with her sweetheart by the Braes o Gleniffer and remarks how different things are now that he has gone to war: "Keen blaws the wind o'er the Braes o' Gleniffer / The auld castle's turrets are cover'd wi' snaw / How chang'd frae the time when I met wi' my lover / Amang the broom bushes by Stanley green shaw." She looks forward to his return when "the dark nights of winter'll be like summer to me".

Maggie Stewart learned the song from her gude-sister [sister-in-law] Jean .

Item Notes

3 stanzas: verses 1 and 3 have 4 lines, verse 2 has 8. Lines are taken from various parts of Tannahill's 3 stanzas of 8 lines. Composed by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) in 1806. One of his best known songs, it refers to Gleniffer Braes in Renfrewshire.

See:
'The Poems and Songs of Robert Tannahill' (R. Tannahill, ed. D. Semple, 1876) pp. 195-198
National Library of Scotland, Broadside Ballad collection, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(339) (1860-1880)

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Item Location

County - Renfrewshire

Parish - Paisley

Village/Place - Gleniffer Braes

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair