This is an old song my granda used to sing and we really love it.

Our interpretation is that it is sung by a Jacobite who was at the battle and is seeing a handome, singing young lad who clearly hasn't been at the battle. The Jacobite tells him that it was a really hard battle, even tougher than fighting his Auntie at home! There is a reference to meeting the Devil - he was amongst the battle, or it could also refer to Dundee, Bonnie Dundee, or James Graham of Claverhouse who was the Jacobite leader. The British thought he was a Devil and could not be killed - see below!

He then goes onto say that the Bold Pitcur, who was who was David Halliburton of Pitcur and a Jacobite leader, fell in a furr - I see most translate this as furrow (as in field) - we always though this meant in a fury, i.e. he died fighting hard.

And Clavers gat a clankie o - well to us a clankie is a bullet! Clavers who was thought to be invincibile, a british soldier took a silver button off his coat, put it in his musket and shot him with it! This was enough to kill Bonnie Dundee sadly, and the breastplate that the silver bullet went through still exists. The Jacobites won the battle but lost the war after the loss of Dundee.

Or I had fed an Athole gled - well this is interesting as others are talking about feeding Hawks or Kites. I thought this meant if I supported the Athole flag? The gled is a flag. Athole was Murray who was a British leader who was later made the first Duke Of Atholl. He was besieging his own castle Blair Castle which was held for King James VII and the Jacobites. To me this means that if the singer had fought on the british side he would have been killed. A bit of code here maybe?

The rest of the song is pretty self explanatory, a bit like Johnny Cope it makes fun of the British commander MacKay and says he have been better staying at court than coming out to fight.

The sour sloes are the treachery of Atholl and the win that eventually became a defeat, because the Devil was (and remains) at Killiecrankie.

That's my take on it anyway!! all the best from Scotland.