Annotation:Thou Bonnie Wood of Crigielee (2)
X:1 % T:Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigie-lea [2] M:C L:1/8 C:James Graham B:Graham - Songs of Scotland Adapted to their Appropriate Melodies (1848, p. 218) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F (A/B/)|c>d c A f>e d c|c>d (d/c/) (B/A/)|A G G (A/B/)| c A B c d e !fermata!f d|c F c>A G>A F|| (F/G/)|A>B G>A F A D F| C<F A F c (B/A/) G>A|F>G A F c A d f |c F c>A G>A !fermata!F||
THOU BONNIE WOOD O' CRAIGIELIE [2]. Scottish, Air and Country Dance Tune (2/4 or whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Craigielea lies to the northwest of Paisley, Scotland. "Thou Bonnie Wood o' Craigielie" is a song by poet Robert Tannahill set to a tune by James Barr, a professional musician in Kilbarchan, Scotland, who afterwards emigrated. Tannahill paid Barr homage in another of his songs, the convivial "The Five Friends," in the fourth stanza:
There is blythe Jamie Barr, frae St. Barchan's toun,
When wit gets a kingdom, he's sure o' the crown;
And we're a' noddin', nid, nid, noddin',
We're a' noddin' fu' at e'en.
Tannahill's words for "Bonnie Wood of Craigielie/Cragie-lea" begin:
Thou bonnie wood of Craigielea,
Thou bonnie wood of Craigielean,
Near thee I pass'd life's early day,
And won my Mary's heart in thee.
The broom, the brier, the birken bush,
Bloom bonnie o'er thy flow'ry lea;
And a' the sweets that ane can wish
Frae nature's hand, are strew'd on thee.
Unfortunately, within a few decades of Tannahill's writing his picturesque 'bonnie Cragielea' had been blighted by the erection of a gas works.