A Jacobite song lamenting the loss of a piper during the rebellion of 1745.

This melody was written by the MacLeod’s piper, Donald Ban MacCrimmon, during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Accompanying Chief Norman MacLeod of MacLeod on the Hanoverian side of the rebellion, Donald Ban was captured in December at Inverurie by Jacobite forces, and such was his fame at the time, that the Jacobite pipers all went on strike to protest against his detention. The original Gaelic words to this song have been attributed to a member of MacCrimmon’s family following his death in battle the following year.

Roon Cuillin’s peaks the mist is sailin
The banshee croons her note o wailin
My old blue een wi sorrow are streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon

Chorus

No more, no more, no more forever
In war and peace shall return MacCrimmon
No more, no more, no more forever
Shall love or gold bring back MacCrimmon

The beast on the brae is mournfully moanin
The brooks in the hollow are plaintively mournin
My old blue een wi sorrow are streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon

MacLeod's wizard flag from the grey castle sallies
The rowers are unseated, and moored are the galleys
Gleam war axe and broadsword, clang target and quiver
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon

'MacCrimmon's Lament', performed by Gillian MacDonald and Frank McLaughlin, with Clare Mee and John Dignan.