Dance Tulloch gorm 6763

These three dances should be considered together.

“Round about Hullachan” is a round-the-room version of “The Reel of Tulloch”. The word “hullachan” or “hoolachan” is defined in Chambers’s Scots Dictionary simply as “a Highland reel”. The same source defines “Tulloch” as “a well-known Scotch reel; its tune; a noisy tune” and “Tullochgorum” as “the reel of Tulloch, or Tulloch’s rant”.

“The Reel of Tulloch” appeared in the Castle Menzies Manuscript of 1749 where it was also called “The mighty pretty valley”. “Tullochgorum” was included in the Drummond Castle Manuscript which was David Young’s A Collection of the best Highland Reels of 1734. “The Reel of Tulloch” is a reel-time pipe tune of Clan Grant and “Tullochgorum”, originally a filled tune, is a Grant strathspey.

There are several Tullochs in Scotland. One is in Glen Spean in Lochaber, between Loch Treig and Loch Moy. There is another near Ballater in Braemar. Tulloch Castle and Tulloch Hill, part of the former barony of Tulloch, lie just north of Dingwall in Ross and Cromarty. The House of Tulloch is near Boat of Garten, five miles north of Aviemore, on the banks of the River Spey. Deep in Grant country, the farm is also known as Tullochgorum. The area west of Aviemore, on the northern slopes of the Cairngorm mountains is known as Tulloch.

Various myths exist concerning the origin of “The Reel of Tulloch”. Even the most plausible of the stories is utterly ridiculous. This particular legend deals with an early 17th century Grant of Tullochgorum during the time that the proscribed Clan Gregor was being either hunted or harboured. Tullochgorum was fond of fiddle music and one of the MacGregor fugitives was a fiddler called Iain Dubh Ciar to whom he gave hospitality. Tullochgorum’s daughter fell in love with the fiddler and one wonders if the laird’s fondness for music extended to the MacGregor fiddler as a son-in-law. However, the pair were courting in the barn one day, alone at the farm on market day, when they were surprised by a party of men who had come to capture Iain Dubh Ciar. The fiddler seized his sword, the girl his dirk, and standing back to back they fought off and killed the attackers. The story does not tell how many. With the dead bounty hunters lying about the barn floor, the young couple are said to have danced for joy and Iain Dubh Ciar composed the tune “The Reel of Tulloch” on the spur of the happy moment. We do not know whether or not he married the laird’s daughter.

“Tullochgorum” was the air used by the Reverend John Skinner as the setting for his song of the same name. (See also “The Crooket Horned Ewie”) Again a story exists, this time concerning the origin of the song. The Episcopal priest from Longside in Aberdeenshire was visiting friends named Montgomerie in the town of Ellon. A heated political discussion, Whig versus Tory, arose among some of the guests and the distraught hostess, to change the subject, asked Mr Skinner if he could not give them some words to the tune of “Tullochgorum”, which he could and did, in his usual lengthy style.

Come, gie’s a sang, Montgomery cry’d,
And lay your disputes all aside,
What signifies’t for folks to chide
    For what was done before them:
Let Whig and Tory all agree,
  Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory,
  Whig and Tory all agree,
   To drop their Whig-mig-morum;
Let Whig and Tory all agree
To spend the night in mirth and glee,
And cheerful sing alang wi’ me
    The Reel o’ Tullochgorum.

O’ Tullochgorum’s my delight,
It gars us a’ in ane unite,
And ony sumph that keeps a spite,
    In conscience I abhor him;
For blythe and cheerie we’ll be a’,
  Blythe and cheerie, blythe and cheerie,
  Blythe and cheerie we’ll be a’,
    And make a happy quorum;
For blythe and cheerie we’ll be a’,
As lang as we hae breath to draw,
And dance, till we be like to fa’,
    The Reel o’ Tullochgorum.

What needs there be sae great a fraise
Wi’ dringing dull Italian lays,
I wadna gie our ain strathspeys
    For half a hunder score o’ them;
They’r e dowf and dowie at the best,
  Dowf and dowie, dowf and dowie,
  Dowf and dowie at the best,
    Wi’ a’ their variorum;
They’re dowf and dowie at the best,
Their allegros and a’ the rest,
They canna’ please a Scottish taste,
    Compar’d wi’ Tullochgorum.

Let warldly worms their minds oppress
Wi’ fears o’ want and double cess,
And sullen sots themsells distress
    Wi’ keeping up decorum:
Shall we sae sour and sulky sit,
  Sour and sulky, sour and sulky?
  Sour and sulky shall we sit,
    Like old Philosophorum!
Shall we sae sour and sulky sit,
Wi’ neither sense, nor mirth, nor wit,
Nor ever try to shake a fit
    To th’ Reel o’ Tullochgorum?

May choicest blessings aye attend
Each honest, open-hearted friend,
And calm and quiet be his end,
    And a’ that’s good watch o’er him;
May peace and plenty be his lot,
  Peace and plenty, peace and plenty,
  Peace and plenty be his lot,
    And dainties a great store o’ them;
May peace and plenty be his lot,
Unstain’d by any vicious spot,
And may he never want a groat
    That’s fond o’ Tullochgorum!

But for the sullen frumpish fool,
That loves to be oppression’s tool,
May envy gnaw his rotten soul,
    And discontent devour him;
May dool and sorrow be his chance,
  Dool and sorrow, dool and sorrow,
  Dool and sorrow be his chance,
    And nane say, wae’s me for him!
May dool and sorrow be his chance,
Wi’ a’ the ills that come frae France,
Wha e’er he be that winna dance
    The Reel o’ Tullochgorum.

Robert Burns was a great admirer of Skinner and he once wrote to the “Reverend and Venerable Sir” to express his “dutiful respect to the author of the best Scotch song ever Scotland saw – ‘Tullochgorum’s my delight!’”