Ye women of the glen
Ye women of the glen
Is it not time for you to arise?
And Seumas-an-Tuim driving away your cattle.”
The tune, then, although Breadalbane’s raid into Caithness may have given it a new lease of life, under a new name, must have been in existence before that time. The raid itself, for that matter, is somewhat mythical, and the chances are that this is only a bowdlerised version of the next story, which is thoroughly authenticated.
It is as “The Carles with the Breeks” that the tune really hails from Caithness. Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy received in 1672 from George Earl of Caithness an assignment of all his lands and possessions on condition that he would take the name of Sinclair. Glenorchy agreed to this, and on the death of the Earl in 1676 he took the title. His right was, however, disputed by the heir male, George Sinclair of Kiess, and Sir John went to Caithness with a force of Campbells, and defeated the Sinclairs at Altimarlach, a spot on the banks of the Water of Wick, and a short distance from the county town. The Campbells, a Highland clan, of course wore the kilt, and like all true Highlanders—of that age—they despised those who did not. The Sinclairs, never a Highland clan, but only a county family at best, wore the trews, and when Findlay Mac Ivor, Glenorchy’s piper, saw them wavering, he poured forth the voluntary:—
“The carles with the breeks, the carles with the breeks,
The carles with the breeks are flying before us.”
And to experts in pipe music the tune does appear to articulate very plainly the sentiments of Bodaich nam Briogais. Another set of words, given in the Killin collection of Gaelic song, seems more like a defying challenge to the Sinclairs than a song of victory:—
“Your cattle lifted are, lifted are, lifted are,