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The Battle o Harlaw

Date September 1959
Track ID 39123
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1959.106.A5

Original Tape ID

SA1959.106

Summary

A song recounting the events of the Battle of Harlaw from the perspective of the defenders of land invaded by a Highland army under MacDonald. The invaders are eventually defeated after losing heart when two noble brothers kill MacDonald.

Item Notes

16 verses with vocable refrain; hesitation after verse 9.

The Battle of Harlaw (Cath Gairbheach in Gaelic) took place near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 24 July 1411 between Donald MacDonald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and an army commanded by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar. Despite the biased and historically inaccurate view of this Scots song (e.g. MacDonald was not in actual fact killed at the battle), and some Gaelic songs that place the outcome more in MacDonald's favour, the battle is generally considered to have been a draw, in view of the severe casualties on both sides. It is remembered as a particularly bloody and savage battle in Scottish history. The site of the battle lies approximately three kilometres north-west of Inverurie.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 1, pp. 302-313, no. 112
'Scottish Ballads' (E. Lyle, 1994) pp. 44-47
'Come Gie's a Sang' (S. Douglas, 1995) pp. 20-21
Ord pp. 473-475
'The Scottish Ballads' (R. Chambers, 1829) pp. 20-28
'The Scottish Minstrel' vol. 4 (R. A. Smith, 1821) p. 36
'Ballads of Scotland' vol. 1 (W. E. Aytoun, 1858) pp. 64-78
'Book of Scottish Ballads' (A. Whitelaw, 1845) pp. 138-140
'The Scottish Folksinger' (N. Buchan & P. Hall, 1973) pp. 132-133
'Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs' vol. 1 (D. Herd, 1869, 1973) pp. 37-45
'Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads' (A. Keith & G. Greig, 1925) pp. 101-106
'The Scots Musical Museum' vol. 6 (J. Johnson & R. Burns, 1853 edition) p. 528, no. 512

Item Subject/Person

MacDonald, Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles

Recording Location

County - Kincardineshire

Parish - Fetteresso

Village/Place - Stonehaven

Item Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Chapel of Garioch

Village/Place - Harlaw

Language

Scots

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R2861 GD112 C163

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair