Lyr Add: Granny's Highland Hame (Sandy MacFarlane

Subject: Lyr Add: GRANNY'S HIGHLAND HAME (Sandy MacFarlane)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Oct 18 - 12:04 PM

Lyrics from the recording in The Internet Archive. (The recording is in two parts, taking up both sides of the 78rpm record.)


GRANNY’S HIGHLAND HAME
Words and music by Sandy MacFarlane, ©1928.
As recorded by Sandy MacFarlane, 1934.

1. Far away in the Hielands, there stands a wee hoose, and it stands on the breest o the brae
Where we played as laddies there long, long ago, and it seems it was just yesterday.
I can still see auld Granny, a smile on her face, just as pure as the heather dew,
And when I kissed her goodbye, wi' a tear in her eye, saying, “Laddie, may God bless you.”

CHORUS: Where the heather bells are bloomin’ just outside Granny's door,
Where as laddies there we played in days of long ago,
‘Neath the shadow of Ben Bhraggie and Golspie's lordly stane,
How I wish that I could see my granny's Hieland hame!

2. In fancy again as I look o'er at Tain while I stand on that low Embo shore,
From Dornoch to Skelbo, then round by The Mound was a ramble we'd take o'er and o'er,
And oft times we'd play near the old quarry brae where the laddies and lassies would meet,
And wi’ auld Granny's smile tae cheer all the while, we'd stroll in oor wee bare feet. CHORUS


GRANNY’S HIGHLAND HAME = title as spelled on the sheet music (according to the catalog entry at WorldCat) and on the record label of the Decca recording; however, a recording on the Columbia label uses the spelling HIELAN’. Recordings by Slim Dusty and by Moyra Fraser use the spelling HIELAND.

I found a copy of the lyrics here—without them, I never could have gotten the place-names right—but I made a few corrections based on MacFarlane’s singing. I have tried to make the spelling match MacFarlane’s pronunciation, but I always feel on shaky ground when I do that.

Places mentioned:
Ben Bhraggie
Golspie
lordly stane = the stone monument to the first Duke of Sutherland—see Ben Bhraggie
Tain
Embo
Dornoch
Skelbo
The Mound

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Granny's Highland Hame (Sandy MacFarlane
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 28 Oct 18 - 06:01 PM

I think my mother thought this song was written for her, as her grannie came from Golspie, and we were taken there for holidays back in the late 50s/early 60s. We did climb Ben Bhraggie and sit against the base of the statue of the Duke of Sutherland: not such a popular fellow, tho' little did I realise that then. As it happens, we passed through Golspie again a couple of weeks ago: some of it not much changed since our early holidays, apart from a lot of new building and businesses on the southern approach to the town. But the 2 hotels we stayed in looking much the same!