Fair Helen of Kirkconnel

Àireamh a' Chlàir Thùsail

SA1952.11.A9

Àireamh an Teip Thùsail

SA1952.011

Notaichean a' Chlàir

Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 10 verses. Text is close to that in 'Legendary Ballads' (J. S. Roberts, Chandos Press). Jimmy Jaffray was third horseman at Drakemyre when Willie Mathieson was in his teens.

This old ballad tells the story of Helen Irvine of Kirkconnel. Kirkconnel Lee was a small hamlet close to the village of Eaglesfield in Dumfriesshire. The bower in which Helen lived was within the grounds of Springkell Estate. She had two suitors, one of whom shot at his rival, but Helen, thrusting herself in front of her lover, Adam Fleming, received the fatal wound instead. Fleming killed the assailant on the spot, but fled the country to avoid the legal process, and enlisted in the Spanish Army. Years later, he returned to Kirkconnel and died by Helen's grave. He was interred alongside her. This tragic event took place in the 16th century. Burns extensively reworked the ballad for both Johnson and Thomson, writing to the latter in 1798 that the original is "silly, to contemptibility".

Also known as 'Fair Helen', 'Helen of Kirkconnel' and '(I Wish I were) where Helen Lies'.

See:
Willie Mathieson's MSS II:163

Neach/Cuspair a' Chlàir

Irvine, Helen

Àite Clàraidh

Àite a' Chuspair

Cànan

Albais

Seòrsa

Òran Fiosrachadh

Cruinneachadh

SoSS

Seòrsachadh

R8191

Cruth Inneal a' Chlàir

Reel to reel

Càileachd an Fhuaime

Math