The Maids Of Kintail jig

A complete version of The Further,The Deeper,and I didn’t want to bury it in the comments section of that tune

It appears as a quickstep in Glen and later collections of Highland Bagpipe music, but is a jig in the earlier collection (Gunn’s). A wonderful tune, however you look at it.

In Kintail is a range of hills known as the Five Sisters of Kintail, and this may have influenced the name, causing ‘Maid’ or ‘Lass’ to become plural as it was passed about. It looks like there may once have been a popular song to this air, probably Gaelic, in which a local girl, perhaps Annie MacNab, was the center of a dark-haired boy’s amorous attention. Maybe someone knows of this song?

I have come across this tune in various Scottish books as “Boc Liath Nan Gobhar”; “The Maids of Kintail”; “The Grey Buck”; and “Dean Cadal ’s Fan Samhach a Chuillean a Ruin”. Jock Tamson’s Bairns recorded it as “Boc Liath Nan Gobhar”.

Donegal fiddler John Doherty’s setting: https://thesession.org/tunes/4844

The title ‘Dean cadal’s fan samhach a Chuillean a ruin’ means something like ‘Go sleep and be easy, darling dear’, and may be from the putative song, since it fits the love theme.

The gaelic words scan, or fit the tune, at least he first couple of bars, so it likely is the beginning of the song.

i’ve only ever known this tune s a 6/8 pipe march, but its interesting to hear about all these other versions with gaelic words to it

A new one to our sessions lately. This is based on the Julie Fowlis version

X: 1
T: The Grey Buck
C: Scottish trad
S: Julie Fowlis
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Amix
|: B/c/d | eee edB | dBA A2g | dGd dc/B/A | BAG G2 g |
fed efg | aAa e2a | g2 e dB/c/d | eAA A :|
|: e/f/g | aaa efg | aaa e2 f | ggg def | ggg d2 g |
fed efg | aAa e2a | g2 e dB/c/d | eAA A :|

See O’Neill’s “1001”, number 77

From PV O’Donnell’s CD “Donegal Fiddler,” paired with “The Bow Legged Tailor.” Liner notes state “Both tunes Father Charlie learned from his brother Jack Coen. They are both in “O’Neill’s.”

This looks very much to me like a Donegal version of the old Highland pipe tune “The Maids of Kintail” https://thesession.org/tunes/5217

Yes, and. See in the comments there is a link to Johnny Doherty’s version of this tune, which I was unaware of. I should probably just this setting over there.

A lovely version by Brighde Chaimbeul and Aidan O’Rourke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWl9shZGU30

play video