Nana Mouskouri – The Skye Boat Song

Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,

Onward, the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to skye

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,

Thunder clouds rend the air;

Baffled our foe’s stand on the shore

Follow they will not dare

Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep

Ocean’s a royal bed

Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep

Watch by your weary head

Many’s the lad fought on that day

Well the claymore could wield

When the night came, silently lay

Dead on Culloden’s field

Burned are our homes, exile and death

Scatter the loyal men

Yet, e’er the sword cool in the sheath,

Charlie will come again.

*note: This song commemorates the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from these

shores when Flora MacDonald took him, disguised as a serving maid,

from Uist to Skye in a small boat.

Flora is buried at Kilmuir on the north coast of Skye. Prince Charlie

near Rome where he was born.

Words by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart., 1884. Music by Annie

MacLeod.