Morag's Fairy Glen

Original Track ID

SA1952.53.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1952.053

Summary

Song of a man telling the beauty of Morag's Fairy Glen, and bidding his love to meet him there.

William Milne learned this song more than forty years before from Bob Anderson, who was for a long time grieve [farm overseer] at the Shank of Omachie.

Item Notes

Text transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 3 verses of 8 lines with a chorus of 4 lines. Very similar to published version, but start of the second verse different, as are the last 2 lines; his first 2 choruses have only 4 lines, as opposed to the published 6 lines.

Song composed by William Cameron (born 03/12/1801, Dunipace, Stirling); he moved to Armadale in Bathgate in 1819, where he became a schoolmaster, before moving to Glasgow in 1836. The melody was composed by Matthew Wilson.

'Morag's Fairy Glen' is in Dunoon, and was gifted to the town in 1929.

William Milne learned song from Bob Anderson, who was the grieve [farm overseer] at the Shank of Omachie [also spelled 'Ommuchie'; 'shank': downward spur or slope of a hill], which is north-east of Dundee, close to Wellbank.

See:
'The Modern Scottish Minstrel' vol. 5 (C. Rogers, 1857) p. 146
'Lyric Gems of Scotland' vol. 1 (comp. John Cameron, 1856) p. 14
'The Glasgow Poets: Their Lives and Poems' (G. Eyre-Tod, 1906) p. 260
'The Scottish Poets Recent and Living' (Alexander G. Murdoch, 1883) p. 171

Item Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good