The line "I'll tak' the high road and ye'll tak' the low" is not only in LOch Lomond.....


Geordie
Ewan MacColl, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol.2, Folkways FG 3510, 1964

Will ye gang tae the Hielands, my bonnie, bonnie love?
Will ye gang tae the Hielands wi' Geordie?
I'll tak' the high road and ye'll tak' the low
And I'll be in the Hielands afore ye

And
I would far rather stay on the bonnie banks o' Spey
And see a' the fish boaties rowin'
Afore I would gang to your high Hieland hills
And hear a' your white kye lowin'

He hadna been on the high Hieland hills
A week but barely three-O
Before he was cast into yon prison strang
For huntin' o' the deer and the roe-O

His lady, she got ward o' it
And quickly she made ready
And she has rode into Edinburgh toon
To plead for the life o' her Geordie

O, has he killed or has he robbed
Or has he injured ony?
No, he's been a-huntin' the king's ain deer
And he shall be hangit shortly

Will the yellow, yellow gowd buy off my bonnie love?
Will the yellow gowd buy off my Geordie? –
It's five hunder poonds ye maun pay for his life
And ye'll get the hat on your Geordie

She's ta'en the kerchie fae aff her heid
And she's spread it oot sae bonnie
And she's ta'en the hat frae her true love's hand
And she's beggit for the life o' her Geordie

And some gied her croons and some gied her poonds
And some gied her perlins bonnie
And the king himsel' gied a hantle o' gowd
For to get the hat on her Geordie

Then oot and spak' an old Irish laird
A bowdy-legged body
Said – For me, Gighty's laird had lost his heid
If I had but gotten his lady

She turned aboot her high horse heid
And wow! But she was saucy:
The pox be on your Irish face
For you never could compare wi' my Geordie

First I was lady o' bonnie Auchindoon
And then I was lady o' Gartly
But now I'm the wife o' the bonnie bog o' Gight
And I beggit for the life o' my Geordie