Trip To Skye waltz

Skolvan has a great version of this tune.

I figured out why this tune haunted me - it sounds so much like Mr. O’Connor. I found the abc of this tune on the Traditional Music Database. It needs some modification.

I have a recording of John Whelan and Eileen Ivers playing this tune in a set with a reel following it, and on that recording the chords are mainly Am and G. I believe that this is in A dorian instead of C Major. It is a haunting tune, and really lends itself to being followed by a reel (maybe in A dorian as well). Thanks for posting this!

I think it needs to be mentioned that this tune was written by John Whelan.

Skye is a small island off the northwest coast of Scotland, the ancestral home of the Nichol / MacNichol / Nicholson clan until the 14th or 15th century, when the island passed by marriage into the Lewis clan.

This may be nitpicking, but this tune is actually in A minor, rather than C Major.

I only offer this because I’d passed over this tune while searching for it several times because of the stated key signature.

If John Whelan wrote this tune then the original key might be B minor, because that’s the key in which he recorded it.

John Whelan composed this tune after visiting Phil Cunningham’s home on Skye in 1985.

@susansharpongs just crushes it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SZue1x1-PA

play video

C: J Whelan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unobqJSK84Y

play video

More nitpicking (only 15 years on!).
“Skye - small island”……? Well, if you compare it with Australia, maybe, but as Scottish islands go, it’s the largest of the Inner Hebrides and 60 miles by road from top to bottom. Not that wee!
Also very much Macleod territory.

Adding the version of the tune as I heard John Whelan playing it, in a recent “Taking Time” slow session (on November 4, 2020). Here’s my full transcription, along with tempo suggestion from the speed in that particular session:

X: 1
T: Trip To Skye
C: John Whelan
S: John Whelan, Taking Time slow session 3
Z: Transcription: Alina Larson
R: waltz
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
Q: 1/4=90
K: Bmin
f2 ed cB|ce AB ce|d/e/d ce dc|d2 B2 B2|
f/g/f ed cB|ce AB ce|d/e/d ce dc|BA FE FA:|
|:F/G/F Bc d2|F/G/F Bc d2|ce AB ce|dc BA FE|
F/G/F Bc d2|F/G/F Bc d2|ce AB ce|d/e/d B2 B2:|

N.B. This is not the tune - ‘Trip to Skye’ which this page is linked to, here.

The album track on the album ‘Rare’, by Jock Tamson’s Bairns, includes the tune Trip to Skye, but that tune is actually a Strathspey, not a Waltz!

Cheers,
Dick

The Trip to Skye, a Strathspey learned from the playing of Jock Tamson’s Bairns & played here on English Concertina, Fiddle, Mountain Dulcimer, Bodhran & Tenor Banjo.

N.B. Not having a photo of Skye I used this photo of the snow-capped peaks on Arran, instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2y-ske0DiA

play video

Cheers,
Dick

Hiya, I don’t want to knitpick either, but whilst the Nichols/MacNicholls etc may inhabit Skye, I would pretty firmly say that it is the seat of power for the MacLeod of MacLeod branch of the MacLeod clan, whose castle, Dunvegan, is the oldest continually inhabited castle in the British isles. The chief of the clan has at certain times, been referred to as the Lord of the isles. The reference to the so-called Lewis clan is probably referring in reality, to the other branch of the MacLeod clan, the Macleods of Lewis. They are Macleods and from the same forebear, Leod, but NOT belonging to the branch that inhabits Skye. The two sons of Leod formed separate branches, one on Skye and one on Lewis/Harris. Anyway, I’m just saying this for your interest rather than wanting to be a pain in the proverbial….I’m of the Lewis branch myself. Tis a good tune anyway, and composed by an Irishman! Oh well, there’s at least one other “Macleod” tune out there composed by a Scot, and taken firmly into the Irish repertoire, eg. MacLeod’s Farewell by Donald Shaw (incidentally, the Shaws have had close affiliation with the Macleods, and were a family under the “blanket” of Macleod).

I’m afraid to nitpick further, Skye is an ancestral home of the Nicolsons (rarely with a h in Skye), Scorrybreac in Portree mainly. It was not “passed” to the MacLeod’s though, they have been there for 1000 years. Neither were MacLeods “Lord of the Isles” - That is the MacDonalds, who along with MacKinnons were and pretty much still are, the dominant clan in south Skye and other areas. Dunvegan, in Skye, is the seat of the MacLeods, not Skye itself. Also, the Lewis and Skye MacLeods have been intertwined throughout their history. All cutting a long story short of course. Neither the two Skye accounts above have much relation to reality.

Leaving aside the various clan rivalries on Skye , this tune has become such an earworm that I have no choice but to get out the melodeon and learn it! This tune has become popular in Brittany, not surprising as it sounds more Breton than Scottish……………..

Yeah, the band Skolvan from Brittany certainly put a Breton feel on it, which is fantastic….I love that band. Eilleen Ivers and the composer together, sound great too, albeit quite different from the Skolvan feel. As for Bogman’s comment, I agree that Skye is not “solely” the seat of the Macleods’, and yes, I have heard MacDonalds’ and MacKinnons called the Lords of the isles, but I have heard it for the Macleods’ too. I guess I’d agree that the MacDonald clan is probably the most dominant clan on Skye. I wasn’t trying to say any clan was better than any other, just saying a few words is all. I was mostly just responding to some earlier comments that sounded as though they really had very little idea of some of the clans/correct info involved etc, and that is fine too. cheers

And sorry to any Shaws’….I didn’t mean you were subordinate in any way, to the Macleods’ or that the Shaws’ had no ties to other clans. My grandmother was actually a Shaw-Macleod so to speak. Her family had been called Macleod legally until her generation, at which time here birth certificate actually said, “Shaw, formerly Macleod.” I’m no expert on these matters. I really was just trying to shed a little more light on somebody else’s comment. I’ll shut it now.

Sorry Mitchell - that is incorrect. Neither MacLeods nor MacKinnons were ever Lord of the Isles - only MacDonald. And it has nothing to do with who was the dominant clan, it anything, the MacLeod’s were probably more dominant overall - but that is unrelated to the Lord of the Isles…

No Photo of Skye? Here’s one I took a couple of years ago from the top of Sgurr na Coinnich just on the Skye side of the bridge…
(Actually changed the link since maps reduces the quality a lot…)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/r8VerJ1qSQG5g4tx6