As a reply to the latest post above, you are quite right the D would have been silent when spoken, but the spelling would have still been Auld. But to me the important fact is that you all appear to like the song, which is how it should be. My gran Mary, Dicky's wife was quite miffed that her name wasn't used in the song. But as Dicky told her, he couldn't think of a decent word to rhyme with her name so chose Sall as it rhymed with gal. The screw Humpy was a very real person, and did indeed have a slight hunchback, hence the name. He was by all accounts a bit brutal to some of the inmates, but not to Dicky who was big man in stature and could be very violent when pushed to that extreme. Brendan and Dicky were born from very different worlds, but each found the common ground to create a great friendship. So pronounce the word Auld however you see fit, and continue to enjoy it for what it is..A great song!