SHORES OF SUTHERLAND
(Jim McLean)

Cold is the wind and the wet,
as we make our beds down on the sand,
Scavenging dulse and clabby-doos
down on the shores of Sutherland.
High on the hills our sheilings
are sheltering factors that robber band;
Shepherds and sheep are asleep
while we die on the shores of Sutherland.

Lying beside the sea,
awaiting the very first boat to land,
Begging for crab and herring
along by the shores of Sutherland.
Once our corn grew high and as tall
and as straight as a highland man.
Now we must harvest the seaweed
that lies on the shores of Sutherland.

Blood from our cows and meal,
and nettle broth made with barley bran!
Banned from the beds of mussels
by dogs and their masters of Sutherland;
Big are the shellfish they're guarding
for fishers who come from some other land,
Cockles are baiting their hooks
while we starve on the shores of Sutherland.

Butter and brose and milk,
salmon and deer and ptarmigan,
Honey and bread and cheese
were the food of the children of Sutherland.
Now we are burned from our clachans
and hunted away from our motherland,
Starved at the edge of the sea
by the Duke and the Duchess of Sutherland.

Source: transcribed from Alastair MacDonald's singing on his Battlefield Ballads album (as preparation for songs on that Album was apparently done in collaboration with Jim McL, this should be a reliable source). This differs from the version submitted at the beginning of this thread in a couplke of ways:-
1) This is quite a large difference: there is an additional verse (verse 2) making 4 in all instead of 3.
2) "dulse" is substituted for "gulls" in; and "dulse" is what Alastair sang).
3) A very unimportant difference in verse 1: I've spelled clabby-doos (gaelic: claba dubha - black mussels, aka horse mussels) the way Alastair sang it; but the other spelling is just as valid, because English "p" is as near to gaelic "b" as English "b" is.
Odd note: verse 1 (scavenging clabby-doos) and verse 3 (banned from the beds of mussels) appear to be in conflict; maybe Jim meant some other shellfish - but I can only think of claba dubha (plural of clab dubh) as a possible source for the word clabby-doo; or maybe the idea is that once the factors noticed the were scavenging mussels they took steps to prevent it?

CMT