Great Loves: Love Stories Through History

Loch Lomond (1746, Scotland)

Time Period: 1746, Scotland, Jacobite Uprising
Source: Song and Legend
Song: Loch Lomond
(I highly suggest listening while you read)
*video can be found above*

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By yon bonnie banks,
And by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love
Were ever want to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

'Twas then that we parted
In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where in deep purple hue
The Highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

The wee birdie sang
And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping,
But the broken heart it kens
Nae second Spring again,
Tho' the waeful may cease frae their greeting.

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It's 1746 and the Jacobites of Scotland are uprising against Britain's King George II. These Jacobites wanted their Scottish Prince Charles to take the throne of the newly-formed United Kingdom instead, and so they organized an army of 7000 Highlanders to fight the British at the Battle of Culloden Moor.

It did not go well.

Since the battle took place at the English border, many of the defeated Scots were taken over to England's Carlisle Castle as prisoners of war.

The English were not known for being very kind to their prisoners of war, and one such mechanism of cruelty was to choose which among them would be sentenced to trial (aka, eventual execution) by random selection. One random selection method was to choose names out of a hat, some sources citing 1 in 20 names as their go-to ratio.

Neither fate - trial (execution) or release back to Scotland - was particularly coveted. Those prisoners of war sentenced to public trials were all inevitably found guilty and subjected to gruesome, terrible executions with many onlookers watching and cheering them on. Sometimes their heads and bodies would be placed on spikes and paraded through major cities, serving as a warning to anyone thinking about uprising against the British again.

Those chosen for release back to Scotland did not have a nice and comfy ride either. They were transported in crammed vehicles, their close-quarters giving rise to spreading disease and the long journey giving rise to starvation. Most died on the way.

I know what you're thinking: where's the love story?

It's coming.

So, our hero in question was one of the Jacobites sentenced to execution. He is sitting in his dark dungeon cell the night before his public trial. What does he do? He writes a poem about the one thing he will miss the most: his true love, back in Scotland, who he will never see again.

As the legend goes, this poem was written by an anonymous prisoner of war, and was later found lying there in his prison cell. It was found long after the man had already been sentenced to his execution and, someone being moved by its lines, put it to the tune we know today. You've heard it, I'm sure. It's a traditional folk song, seemingly about a beautiful lake in the rolling green Scottish hillsides.

But now, my friends, we know better.

Loch (Lake) Lomond is where our Scottish hero is from, and on the night of his death he is remembering it fondly. It is the place he last saw his true love, before he left for battle. They parted on the steep side of the mountain overlooking the lake. In deep purple hues, they could see moon rising up behind the highland hills.

In this song, as he reminds us again and again, he knows he will never see his true love. He is speaking to the prisoner beside him in the dungeon, one of the 'lucky' ones who will be returning home to Scotland.

In Celtic lore, if someone dies outside of their homeland, they will take the "low road" - a way for souls to travel - back home.

Thus, the living soldier will return to Scotland via the "high road", above ground, and our hero sent to execution will travel via the "low road". Since the journey back to Scotland by carriage was long, our hero knows he will arrive in Scotland (as a soul) long before his fellow prisoner will.

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Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

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In his final verse, he is describing the last Spring he ever saw on Loch Lomond. He describes the birds singing and the wildflowers blooming. There is sun over the sleeping waters of the lake. But his broken heart, it kens (knows) there will be no second Spring for him to see again.

In his last line, he tells those who mourn him to cease their crying. I think this is because, even though he will never again see his true love, he knows that his soul will be back home in his beloved Lomond.

Why are the lyrics so cryptic? Apparently the Scots used songs to remember things that were forbidden and treacherous to the English. In this way, since the song is about the Jacobite uprising but does not explicitly say so, the memory of those who died in the battle could live on without its singers being reprimanded.

It is, after all, only a simple and tragic love song if you take it at its surface-level.

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