Skye Boat Song

The Skye Boat Song evokes the flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie following the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Disguised as an Irish maidservant, Prince Charles Edward Stuart was secretly ferried from Benbecula to the Isle of Skye to escape the soldiers of the British government. This episode became one of the most romanticised in Scottish history.

Although often presented as a traditional song, the melody was in fact composed in the nineteenth century: Annie MacLeod drew inspiration from a Gaelic air, and the words were written by Harold Boulton. Annie MacLeod was travelling on the Isle of Skye in the 1870s and was rowed across Loch Coruisk by boatmen who sang the Gaelic song Cùchag nan Craobh (The Cuckoo in the Trees). A gifted musician, she memorised fragments of it and wrote them down, before collaborating with Boulton, who added Jacobite-inspired lyrics.

Robert Louis Stevenson also wrote an alternative set of words, probably in 1885, feeling that the originals were unworthy of the melody. Since then, the piece has been recorded countless times and has enjoyed a worldwide resurgence in popularity thanks to the series Outlander, which uses it as its main theme. Its 6/8 time signature, evoking the rocking of oars on water, makes it equally effective as a song or an instrumental piece, and it is regularly played on the bagpipes at ceremonies and gatherings.