Gur Mise tha fo Mhulad air an Tulaich nam Ònar

An t-Urr. Uilleam MacMhathain: Well, the first time I sang this was at the Mòd, but not as a competitor. I've never competed at the Mòd. The best songs at the Mòd, the most authentic, to use that word, are not to be heard in the competitions; they're to be heard in various hotel bedrooms at three o'clock in the morning, when you come to the stage of saying, 'Ach, that competition. They didn't have the right way of singing it at all. This is the way I heard it.' And songs come out on occasions like that.

Well, anyway, there's a remarkable story connected with this song. And it... there was a song sung at the Mòd, and it was obviously composed by a woman. It was sung by a group, and that's what set me off on this one. I remembered this song that I'd heard in Mull, which is almost to the same tune, but it's by a man, and the verses are quite different. And the story is... it's not all that old you know. It's about eighteen hundred, beginning of last century, and this man MacLean of Scallasdale in Mull, he was engaged to be married to the daughter of Campbell of Ardnacross, who was the Duke of Argyll's factor in Mull. But there was a girl across on the other side of the Sound of Mull, a daughter of Gregorson of Ardtornish, who was very much in love with him, and they got him over there on a visit, and believe it or not, she planned things in such a way that they made him drunk, and when he sobered up, he found that he had been married to her. He woke up in bed with her. It seems to be quite authentic, but did they bribe a minister or what? I don't know how it was done. And it's in the form of the waulking... it's got a... it's got a three-line... is it a three-line chorus? I think. Yes, and a couplet for the verse.


Hùg órann ó róbha hó.
Mo nighean donn bhòidheach.
Hùg órann ó róbha hó.

Gura mis' tha fo mhulad
Air an tulaich nam ònar.

Ann an Sgalasdal creagach
'S mi gun bheadradh gun mhòrchuis.

Cha tig uaislean gam iarraidh
Is chan fhiach leoth' mo chòmhradh.

Mi a' cuallach na sprèidhe
Is cha lèir dhomh le deòir iad.

Gur h-i buidseachd Chloinn Ghriogair
Dh'fhàg gun mhisneachd rim bheò mi.

Dol gam phòsadh air daoraich
'S gun mo ghaol a bhith òg oirr'.

Ciamar sheinneas mi fidheall
Tha mo chridhe ro bhrònach.

No pìob shiùbhlach nam feadan
'S tric a spreig mi i 'm sheòmar.

Gura diombach mi dh'Eachann
Rinn mo leannan a phòsadh.

'S e a fhuair a' bhean mhaiseach
Tè nam meal-shùilean bòidheach.

Fhuair e bean an deagh nàdair
Thug mi gràdh dhi 'n tùs m' òige.

Nighean bàillidh na dùthcha
'S i bu chliùitiche dhòmhsa.

'S i a thigeadh ri m' inntinn
Dol san ruidhle an òrdugh.