Guddling In The Carrying Stream.
Essie Stewart was at the camp. A handsome girl of fourteen then. Riding a pony round the stakes where Gordon tethered the horses. She played her accordion and sang her uncle Brian Stewart’s English song, ‘By Klibreck and Ben Loyal’. He was in Burma during the war. It described so well the Traveller routes in the north west.”[1]
When Hamish recalled the recordings he did that day in the magazine Tocher he said:
“This amazing old hero had a version of ‘Am Bron Binn’ (The Sweet Sorrow), an heroic lay now very rare, and stories of Oisean and the Feinne, as well as a vast store of wonder tales and other Marchen … he had learned most of his stories from [his mother] Old Susie … Old Susie died in 1938 aged 91; this means she was born 13 years before the publication of the first volumes of Campbell of Islay’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands, and must have learned many of her stories orally in the mid-nineteenth century from relations born before the end of the eighteenth century – from folk, therefore, who in all likelihood were travelling the roads while ‘Ossian’ MacPherson was still alive…”[2]
[1] Page 70 - 71 - Quoted by Timothy Neat in ‘The Summer Walkers’, published by Canongate, Edinburgh – 2002.
[2] [2] Page xxxi Alec Finlay (Editor) 2004 Alias MacAlias Writings on Songs, Folk and Literature Hamish Henderson Polygon, Edinburgh – quoted from Tocher 28, 267 - 8
The Hostel Boys’ Version
Here is the verse composed by Andrew. P. Mackenzie (Clashmore, Stoer).
Lochinver, Kinlochbervie, Durness, Scourie and Stoer
Achfary, Kylesku, Drumbeg and lovely Fanagmore
These are the places that the hostel boys do view
There's many a mile from Dornoch to the Waters of Kylesku.
Andrew says:
“I wrote this verse in either my first or second year at Golspie High School (1990/1991) on the bus from Lochinver to Dornoch one Sunday night, when I stayed in Earls Cross Hostel in Dornoch.”
A version of the ‘Waters of Kylesku’ which incorporates this verse was often sung on the school bus in those days, on the long trip back west on Fridays and east on Sundays. Now it is sung at local ceilidhs.
Hamish Henderson went on to make many more recordings with the Stewart family. In 1956 he returned in the company of Norman MacLean and an American, Bobby Botsford. In 1957 he got funds from Edinburgh University to make a trip himself and spend a good long time on the road with Essie and her family. These recordings provide an invaluable record of songs, tunes and stories in Gaelic and in English. They were recorded in the summer months in all the traditional camping places in Mackay Country.
Hamish Henderson devoted his life to this kind of work. At his funeral in 2002, Essie Stewart sang ‘Jock Stewart’ and Timothy Neat compared him to Nelson Mandela in stature and scope. Mackay Country has much to thank him for.
Local Songs
The song which Essie sung is perhaps better known nowadays as ‘The Waters of Kylesku’. Listening to the words you can imagine Brian Stewart as a young soldier in Burma, dreaming of Sutherland. The tune is from a Gaelic love song – ‘Gad Chuimhneachadh’ – Remembering You. Not a local song but a lovely old song.
‘By Klibreck and Ben Loyal’
These are the words recorded by Hamish Henderson to ‘By Klibreck and Ben Loyal’:
By Klibreck and Ben Loyal and the bonnie Kyle of Tongue
That road we often travelled in the days when we were young:
There’s magic and there’s beauty in those hills when passing through
There’s many a mile from Lairg to the waters of Kylesku.
Chorus
Of all of bonnie Scotland I dearly love the west,
Its bens and glens in summertime, they surely are the best
For grandeur and for beauty in those hills when passing through
There’s many miles from Melness to the waters of Kylesku.
By Craigie Pool and Loyal and the Colbackie sands
I’ve thought of them when soldiering in far off foreign lands;
I dreamt I saw the sunset on the hill of Chashel Dhu
In fancy I was wandering by the waters of Kylesku
There’s beautiful Achfary on the shores of Loch More
Where winter waves are breaking like the seas on Skerray More;
By Laxford and Rhiconich and the bonnie cave of Smoo –
There’s many miles from Durness to the waters of Kylesku
By Ledmore and Loch Assynt, from Lochinver down to Stoer
You can view the wild Atlantic from its cold and rocky shore;
The clear and sparkling rivers here, the salmon are not few
There’s many a mile from Oykel to the waters of Kylesku