Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
MacCrimmon's Lament (Roud No. 5134) - Sung by Lizzie Higgins (Elizabeth Ann Youlden, 1929-1993) of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Daughter of settled Travellers, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson and Donald "Donty" Higgins, an accomplished piper. Filmed and recorded by David Kotyk as part of the John D. Niles folklore research team for the "Scottish Voices" project in the sitting room of Lizzie's home in Aberdeen in August 1986.
00:00:00 Demonstrates Pipe Style Singing
00:02:07 Sings MacCrimmon's Lament
00:07:49 Ends
The original movie can be watched here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AD4TWQ73DI5U6S8J
I used my knowledge on video editing to share the films on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video.
Note by Kevin W.:
I was delighted to discover these videos of Scotland's great tradition bearers in the John D. Niles Collection. The often poorly treated Scottish Travellers honor the memories of their ancestors through songs, music and storytelling. They are proud of their culture and kept old traditions alive for hundreds of years. Many of our most gifted traditional singers and storytellers are Travellers.
Scottish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority in Scotland who live or traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle and for centuries were unfairly shunned by the settled population. For that reason the singing culture of the Travelling people had not been well documented before the 20th century when non-Travellers with an interest in folklore visited and befriended Travellers and started recording their songs, music and stories.
Lizzie's slow style of singing which she based on her father's and her uncle Isaac "Seely" Higgins' bagpipe playing is beautiful and highly demanding with lots of ornamentation. Interestingly Lizzie used the pipe style decorations for her father's songs but sang closer to her mother's style for Jeannie's songs.
For more information on Lizzie Higgins the booklet notes to "In Memory of Lizzie Higgins 1929-1993" (2006) Musical Traditions MTCD337-8 are essential reading (and the album is well worth getting): mustrad.org.uk/articles/higgins.htm
Note on the Song:
Cha Till e Tuille—Cumha Mhic Criomain (No More Returning—MacCrimmon’s Lament) is a pibroch (complex variations on a theme set for the Highland bagpipe) said to have been composed in 1745 by Donald Ban (‘fair’ haired) MacCrimmon, hereditary piper to Norman, 19th chief of the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, in premonition of his death before the battle of Culloden the following year. Unfortunately for romance, he and his chief were on the ‘wrong’ (i.e. Hanoverian Government) side and Donald was unlucky enough to be the only one killed in the ignominious ‘Rout of Moy’. This was an attempt by the Hanoverians to capture Prince Charles Edward Stuart (‘Bonny Prince Charlie’) quartered at the House of Moy near Inverness, in a midnight attack. The plans for this were discovered by Jacobite spies and the Hanoverians ambushed in a thunderstorm and routed in panic. MacCrimmon’s body was carted back to Inverness for burial.
The words as Lizzie sings them are based on Prof. John Stuart Blackie's translation from the Gaelic lyrics, believed to have been written by Dr. Norman Macleod. From John Stuart Blackie's 1876 book "The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands":
deriv.nls.uk/dcn23/7997/79976159.23.pdf
As a young girl, Lizzie learned the words of MacCrimmon's Lament from a book (Blackie's book?) her uncle Isaac gave her, and her father taught her its pipe tune. She regarded it as an extremely difficult piece both to learn initially and perform, especially the "pipe decorations". Lizzie and her mother Jeannie are the only traditional singers to have been recorded singing it as far as I can tell.
Jeannie Robertson can be heard singing it at the 4th People's Festival Ceilidh in Edinburgh in September 1954 in a recording made by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/47993?l=en
Song transcription:
Around Coolin’s peaks the mist is sailin;
The banshee croons her note o wailin.
My own blue een wi sorrow is streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
Chorus:
No more, no more, no more forever
In war or peace shall return MacCrimmon
No more, no more, no more forever
Shall love or gold bring back MacCrimmon.
The beasts on the braes are mournfully moanin,
The brooks in the hollows are plaintively moanin.
My own blue een wi sorrow are streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
MacLeod’s withered flag from the grey castle sallies,
The oars are unseated, unmoored are the galleys,
Gleans war-axe and broadsword, clan target and quiver,
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
MacCrimmon's Lament (Roud No. 5134) - Sung by Lizzie Higgins (Elizabeth Ann Youlden, 1929-1993) of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Daughter of settled Travellers, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson and Donald "Donty" Higgins, an accomplished piper. Filmed and recorded by David Kotyk as part of the John D. Niles folklore research team for the "Scottish Voices" project in the sitting room of Lizzie's home in Aberdeen in August 1986.
00:00:00 Demonstrates Pipe Style Singing
00:02:07 Sings MacCrimmon's Lament
00:07:49 Ends
The original movie can be watched here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AD4TWQ73DI5U6S8J
I used my knowledge on video editing to share the films on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video.
Note by Kevin W.:
I was delighted to discover these videos of Scotland's great tradition bearers in the John D. Niles Collection. The often poorly treated Scottish Travellers honor the memories of their ancestors through songs, music and storytelling. They are proud of their culture and kept old traditions alive for hundreds of years. Many of our most gifted traditional singers and storytellers are Travellers.
Scottish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority in Scotland who live or traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle and for centuries were unfairly shunned by the settled population. For that reason the singing culture of the Travelling people had not been well documented before the 20th century when non-Travellers with an interest in folklore visited and befriended Travellers and started recording their songs, music and stories.
Lizzie's slow style of singing which she based on her father's and her uncle Isaac "Seely" Higgins' bagpipe playing is beautiful and highly demanding with lots of ornamentation. Interestingly Lizzie used the pipe style decorations for her father's songs but sang closer to her mother's style for Jeannie's songs.
For more information on Lizzie Higgins the booklet notes to "In Memory of Lizzie Higgins 1929-1993" (2006) Musical Traditions MTCD337-8 are essential reading (and the album is well worth getting): mustrad.org.uk/articles/higgins.htm
Note on the Song:
Cha Till e Tuille—Cumha Mhic Criomain (No More Returning—MacCrimmon’s Lament) is a pibroch (complex variations on a theme set for the Highland bagpipe) said to have been composed in 1745 by Donald Ban (‘fair’ haired) MacCrimmon, hereditary piper to Norman, 19th chief of the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, in premonition of his death before the battle of Culloden the following year. Unfortunately for romance, he and his chief were on the ‘wrong’ (i.e. Hanoverian Government) side and Donald was unlucky enough to be the only one killed in the ignominious ‘Rout of Moy’. This was an attempt by the Hanoverians to capture Prince Charles Edward Stuart (‘Bonny Prince Charlie’) quartered at the House of Moy near Inverness, in a midnight attack. The plans for this were discovered by Jacobite spies and the Hanoverians ambushed in a thunderstorm and routed in panic. MacCrimmon’s body was carted back to Inverness for burial.
The words as Lizzie sings them are based on Prof. John Stuart Blackie's translation from the Gaelic lyrics, believed to have been written by Dr. Norman Macleod. From John Stuart Blackie's 1876 book "The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands":
deriv.nls.uk/dcn23/7997/79976159.23.pdf
As a young girl, Lizzie learned the words of MacCrimmon's Lament from a book (Blackie's book?) her uncle Isaac gave her, and her father taught her its pipe tune. She regarded it as an extremely difficult piece both to learn initially and perform, especially the "pipe decorations". Lizzie and her mother Jeannie are the only traditional singers to have been recorded singing it as far as I can tell.
Jeannie Robertson can be heard singing it at the 4th People's Festival Ceilidh in Edinburgh in September 1954 in a recording made by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/47993?l=en
Song transcription:
Around Coolin’s peaks the mist is sailin;
The banshee croons her note o wailin.
My own blue een wi sorrow is streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
Chorus:
No more, no more, no more forever
In war or peace shall return MacCrimmon
No more, no more, no more forever
Shall love or gold bring back MacCrimmon.
The beasts on the braes are mournfully moanin,
The brooks in the hollows are plaintively moanin.
My own blue een wi sorrow are streamin
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
MacLeod’s withered flag from the grey castle sallies,
The oars are unseated, unmoored are the galleys,
Gleans war-axe and broadsword, clan target and quiver,
For him that shall never return, MacCrimmon.
