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The Battle o Harlaw

Date 16 January 1960
Track ID 56079
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1960.147.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1960.147

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

20 verses with vocable refrain; tape breaks after verses 8 and 17. The Battle of Harlaw (Cath Gairbheach in Gaelic) took place near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire on 24 July 1411 between Donald MacDonald, 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 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
'Bothy Songs & Ballads' (J. Ord, 1930) 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 - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Old Deer

Village/Place - Fetterangus

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