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COSHIEVILLE
©Stuart MacGregor
(notes from Archie Fisher’s "The Man With a Rhyme" Folk-Legacy CD-61)

Stuart MacGregor was a poet, songwriter, and novelist, and no mean singer and raconteur. He was there at the "beginning" in Edinburgh. His poetry was deeply rooted in our folksong, and the transition to songwriting enriched the repertoires of his friends and, as time as shown, the music and literature of the country he so dearly loved.
Coshieville is a hamlet not far from Aberfeldy which is known as the "Gateway to the Highlands." The song is set in the time of the building of our hydro-electric dams, an era that changed many parts of the West Highlands and the hearts of some of the girls the workers left behind.

The west winds blow to Coshieville,
And with the winds came we,
And where the river hugs the wood
And blackthorns bloom in May, there stood
A single rowan tree,
So young and tender -- so were you.
I loved you both as there you grew,
The day I took the road that leads
By Rannoch to the sea.

We carved our names in Coshieville;
The rowan leaves were still.
But the darkening west was in your eyes;
Despite your kisses and my lies,
My thoughts had crossed the hill.
I broke your heart as the minutes passed,
For I shrugged and said that nothing lasts,
But many’s the backwards glance I cast
As I went north to the drill.

The big wheels rumble up and down,
The lorries know the way.
I waved my hand, I hitched a ride.
We crossed the bridge at Rannochside
Where the diesel motors play.
Then I set myself to a cliff of stone,
My ears to the boring hammer’s drone,
And the ache inside I rued alone,
For you were far away.

But the money moved from Erichts Loch
And the Great Glen beckoned on.
At Norriston the hills grew pale,
And we fought and drank through old Kintail,
Till our money soon was gone.
Then I cursed Loch Aweside’s autumn rain,
And the winter whisky in Dunblane,
Till the west winds rose in the spring again
And my heart leapt at its song.

And I came at night to Coshieville,
With a dozen hills aflame.
You had another hand to hold;
Beneath the names we carved of old
There was another name.
You looked me through, you made no sign.
I drank the cup of bitter wine,
For well we knew the fault was mine,
And I went the road I came.

I hadn't taken the time to familiarize myself with this song until the lyrics request was posted. It certainly is a pretty one. The album is available from Folk-Legacy Records. Every song on the album is a gem.
-Joe Offer-