And here I've been thinking all this while Pentland referred to the Firth! Pentland is also referred to in The Scarborough Settler's Lament - though in SSL they refer to "Pentland's craggy comb" - would that fit the hills as well? But I see now in Bonnie Dundee it's definately the hills (he wouldn't have been near John o' Groats anyway, come to think of it - duh!), and in this instance the hills would make much better sense as he's from Edinburgh! My Scottish geography is woefully inadequate!

Thanks Murray and Bruce. I appreciate the info - and the corrections to the lyrics. Although it is sea in the songbook - deep is certainly much preferable. Though I am now a bit confused as to Afton Water. The tune we are familiar with is Hume's, correct? So there was another tune associated with Burns' words before that - can you tell me what it was?

Well, it's good to know that when my instincts suggested to me that it wasn't a 16th century tune, they were right. It doesn't always work that way...

I put the tune up at Scottish Emigrant's Farewell (http://www.contemplator.com/folk6/scotemig.html).