De Skye Boat Song is een Schotse wals, folk song geschreven door Sir Harold Boulton na de ontsnapping van Bonnie Prins Charlie rond 1880.
Na zijn nederlaag bij de slag van Culloden,vlucht de prins naar Isle of Skye .
De prins ontsnapte in een kleine boot met behulp van Flora MacDonald, vermomd als een vrouw.
Het lied is een traditionele uitdrukking van jacobitisme en het verhaal achter dit nummer is een ware nationale legende.
The Skye Boat Song
A Jacobite lament describing how Bonnie Prince Charlie, disguised as an Irish woman, was rowed over the Minch to the island of Skye to hide from the British soldiers.
This is the best-known Jacobite song but it wasn’t created at the time. The words were written by an Englishman, Sir Harold Boulton, in the 1880’s. He used a Gaelic song format, a rowing song called an iorram, and the tune is said to come from the Gaelic song Cuachan nan Craobh or The Cuckoo in the Grove.
Onward the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that’s born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Loud the waves roar
Baffled our foes
Stand by the shore
Follow they will not dare
Onward the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that’s born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Well the claymore did wield
When the night came
Silently lain
Onward the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that’s born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Ocean’s a royal bed
Rocked in the deep
Flora will keep
Onward the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that’s born to be king
Over the sea to Skye