Voicing: SAB and piano
Arranger: Alexander L'Estrange
The Skye boat song is perhaps one of the best-known Scottish melodies of all. It refers to the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie who, still only a boy, was smuggled out of Scotland to France after the Scots' defeat by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Despite there being a huge reward on his head, not one of his faithful Highlanders would betray him to the 'auld enemy': a girl named Flora MacDonald disguised him in her maid's clothes and helped to row him 'over the sea to Skye'. The words by Sir Harold Boulton date from the nineteenth century.