The Braes o Gleniffer
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1954.97.B4
Original Tape ID
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
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Fair