Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - Reminscences of camping and singing on the Old Road of Lumph...
Reporters - Barbara McDermitt

Summary - Reminscences of camping and singing on the Old Road of Lumphanan.

The Old Road of Lumphanan was referred to as "doon the back of the hills". Maggie MacGregor was a local landowner, who had gone to school with some of the Travellers and allowed them to camp there. Anecdote about another landowner trying to stop them going to see her. The contributor talks about Travellers' feelings of attachment to the Old Road and quotes a prayer. She lists families who used to camp there. There were songs and music. She diddles a few bars. As a child, she lived next door to Jeannie [Robertson]. She sings a fragment of 'Brennan on the Moor', from Jeannie's repertoire, and says that the children would wonder who Brennan was, imagining he was someone like Robin Hood. When camping the world of the songs became real. The old Travellers would talk about piping and fiddling. Janet canters some bars of the pipe tune 'Farewell to the Creeks'. It did not matter if the music or singing was in tune, it was more about the feeling of the music and being in harmony with nature. They would never be bothered by wild animals, nor would they harm them, not even poisonous snakes.

Children were treated as equals. She gives the example of her cousin, who used to sing around the campfire as a child. At the same time, the elderly were treated with reverence. Anecdote about her father waking up and spontaneously composing a song: she sings two lines of it, "Fine day the day boys / blossoms in the heather," to the tune of 'The Smith's a Gallant Fireman'.

Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:08:22
Date Recorded - 1981.11.18
Language - English, Gaelic, Scots, Other
Genre - Music, Song, Information, Other
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 49866
Original Tape ID - SA1981.086
Original Track ID - SA1981.86.A1
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R



Recording Location:
  County - Kincardineshire
  Parish - Dunnottar
  Village - Stonehaven


Item Location:
  County - Aberdeenshire
  Parish - Lumphanan

Item Notes - 'Farewell to the Creeks', was composed by Pipe Major James 'Pipie' Robertson of Boyne, Banffshire, in 1915 when he was a prisoner of war in Germany.

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/49866/1


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