The People Songbag

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 12

The People Songbag

Scotch Wrath

As I came in by Auchindown, A little wee bit frae the town, When to the highlands 1 was borne, To view the Haughs of Cromdale. I met a man in tartan trews, I speer’d at him what was the

news? Quo' he, the covenant army

rues, That e'er we came to Cromdale This bloody (and bloodthirsty) Scottish ballad, which was long hacked about in the stalls of Edinburgh before it first found its way into a permanent collection in 1794, commemorates a terrible battle in the parish of Cromdale

(Specially written for "The Press" by

DERRICK ROONEY)

between the Loyalist forces of the Marquis of Montrose and the Lords of the Covenant in the mid-17th century. “The Haughs O' Cromdale” has dropped out of the repertoires of all but a few dedicated antiquarians among folk-singers; but it really deserves a less dusty fate. Although neither as stark as the "Baron O’ Brackley” nor as intense as the “Bonny Earl O’ Murray,” it has power, simplicity and the genuine flavour of combat. Cromdale is an extensive parish, straddling Inverness and Moray counties, bleak and arid on the high grounds but rich and fertile near the banks of the Soey. It was there in May, 1645, that Montrose’s war against the covenant forces reached a turning point, and there that victory opened the rest of Scotland to Montrose and his patron. Charles I.

Before Cromdale Montrose, threatened by the powerful Army of the Covenant, had fled 60 miles from the pillaged town of Dundee to the mountains of Perthshire. Generals Baillie and Urrey. commanders of the covenant forces, had sniffed victory and, somewhat imprudently, separated their divisions. Urrey pushed forward to Cromdale, where he surprised and routed some Highlanders under the command of Montrose’s followers, Alexander M’Donald. Montrose, a very sharp general, saw his chance and boldly force-marched his troops to the village of Auldern, where, although heavily outnumbered, they took revenge on the covenant armv “with prodigious slaughter.” Next the Highlanders clashed with Baillie’s army and left the greater part of it dead on the field at Alford. Flushed with success. Montrose pushed on to Kilsyth, where in a third bloods- and decisive battle 600 convenapters fell to the claymores. Montrose had Scotland at his feet.

As a reward, Charles 1 appointed Montrose Captaingeneral end Deputy Governor of the Kingdom of Scotland. But there is a sad ending. Soon afterwards Charles, • contemporary account, “had the misfortune to be brought to the scaffold by his rebellious subjects” in January, 1649. Within little more than a year Montrose, after suffering heavy defeats by General Leslie at Selkirk and Colonel Strahcan at Ross, had met a similar fate.