The Haughs o Cromdale

Original Track ID

SA1956.45.A14

Original Tape ID

SA1956.045

Summary

The singer meets a man near Auchindoun and asks for news [of the battle at the Haughs o Cromdale]. The man replies, "The Hielan army rues / That e'er it focht at Cromdale." Montrose [James Graham, Marquess of Montrose] rides into battle, turning the tide in his favour. Various Jacobite clans are listed among the victors.

Item Notes

4 verses of 4 lines. Recited fragments.

This song refers to the Battle of Cromdale (1690), in reality a significant Jacobite defeat, but described in this traditional song as a resounding victory.

This song was first printed in James Hogg's 'Jacobite Relics', appearing as a rewrite of an earlier traditional song, supposedly composed as propaganda by the losing Jacobites sometime 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 mixes the events of the Battle of Cromdale, with those of the Battle of Auldearn (1645), in which Montrose did take part.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 1, pp. 314-316
'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

Item Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R5147 GD113

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good