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The Haughs o Cromdale

Date 03 April 1965
Track ID 58473
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1965.162.B3

Original Tape ID

SA1965.162

Summary

In this pared-down version of 'The Haughs of Cromdale', the singer meets a man in tartan trews near Auchindoun, whom he asks for news of the battle at the Haughs of Cromdale. The man replies that the Jacobite army has suffered a great defeat at the hands of the English. Montrose [James Graham, Marquess of Montrose] then rides to engage the English in a second battle, turning the tide in the Jacobites' favour. Various Jacobite clans are listed among the victors.

Item Notes

3 verses of 8 lines. The Battle of Cromdale (1690) was in reality a significant Jacobite defeat, but this traditional song describes it as a resounding victory. The song was first printed in James Hogg's 'Jacobite Relics' (1819), appearing as a rewrite of an earlier traditional song, supposedly composed as propaganda by the losing Jacobites some time after 1690. Bizarrely, the song refers to James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, who died some forty years before the events mentioned in the song; there is some speculation that the song in fact mixes the events of the Battle of Cromdale (1690), with the much earlier events of the Battle of Auldearn (1645), in which Montrose did take part.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 1, pp. 314-316, no. 113
'101 Scottish Songs' (N. Buchan, 1962) pp. 91-92
'The Jacobite Relics of Scotland' (J. Hogg, 1819) pp. 3-5
'Ballads of Scotland' vol. 2 (W. E. Aytoun, 1858) pp. 269-273
'Scotish [sic] Songs' vol. 2 (J. Ritson, 1794, 1869) pp. 382-385
'The Scots Musical Museum' vol. 5 (J. Johnson, R. Burns, 1853 edition) pp. 502-503, no. 488

Item Subject/Person

Graham, James (1st Marquess of Montrose)

Recording Location

County - Angus

Parish - Dundee

Village/Place - Dundee

Item Location

County - Moray

Parish - Cromdale, Inverallan and Advie

Village/Place - Haughs of Cromdale

Language

Scots

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R5147 GD113

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair