Digital Tradition Mirror

The Loch Tay Boat Song

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Loch Tay Boat Song

When I've done the work of day, and I row my boat away
Down the waters of Loch Tay as the evening sun is sinking,
Then I look toward Ben Lawers, where the after glories glow
And I dream on two bright eyes with a merry mouth below.
     She's my beauteous nighean ruadh, she's my joy and sorrow too;
     Though I own she is not true, ah, but I cannot live without her.
     For my heart's a boat in tow, and I'd give the world to know
     If she means to let me go, as I sing hori horo.

Nighean ruadh, your lovely hair has more beauty I declare
Than all the tresses fair from Killin to Aberfeldy.
Be they lint-white, gold, or brown, be they blacker than the sloe,
They mean not as much to me as a melting flake of snow.
     And her dance is like the gleam of the sunlight on the stream
     And the songs the wee folk sing, they're the songs she sings at milking.
     But my heart is full of woe, for last night she bade me go,
     And the tears begin to flow, as I sing hori horo.

As sung by Silly Wizard on "Kiss the Tears Away."
     The Gaelic words "nighean ruadh" mean "red-haired girl";
"hori horo" are used by the Scots to indicate sorrow. Ben Lawers
is a hill to the north of Loch Tay; Killin and Aberfeldy are towns
on the east and west ends of the lake.
RW

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!