Loch Tay Boat Song
Traditional, Composed by Annie C. MacLeod
Lyric by Sir Harold Boulton
When I've done my work of day / And I row my boat away
Down the waters o' Loch Tay / As the evening light is fading
And I look upon Ben Lawers / Where the after-glory glows
And I think on two bright eyes / And the merry mouth below
She's my beauteous nighean ruadh* / She's my joy and sorrow too
And although she is untrue / Well, I cannot live without her
For my heart's a boat in tow / And I'd give the world to know
Why she means to let me go / As I sing horee horo
Nighean ruadh*, your lovely hair / Has more glamour I declare
Than all the tresses rare / 'tween Killin and Aberfeldy
Be they lint white, brown or gold / Be they blacker than the sloe
They are worth no more to me / Than the melting flake of snow
Her eyes are like the gleam / O' the sunlight on the stream
And the songs the fairies sing / Seem like 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 horee, horo
(* Nighean ruadh is Scottish Gaelic for red-haired girl.)