Annotation:MacPherson's Cave

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MACPHERSON'S CAVE. Scottish, Air (4/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Biography:J. Scott Skinner [] (1843-1927), the self-styled "Strathspey King"; composer, performer, dancing-master, and compiler.

The hiding place of Clan Chief Cluny Macpherson (as Ewan MacPherson of Cluny, chief of the Clan Chattan, was known) is located on the height of Ben Alder, overlooking the wild shores of Loch Ericht. He had come out for Bonnie Prince Charlie during the uprising of 1745, and found sanctuary for a time in the cave before escaping to France (where he died in 1765). Breck and Balfour, characters in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, meet Cluny at the cave.

Near MacPherson's Cave is located Delnabo, the residence of one of Skinner's acquaintances, Colonel Smith (see Skinner's "Delnabo"). One of Ossian's odes is entitled "MacPherson's Cave," a passage of which goes:

Dar in the rock, beside the flood;
Dry fern around obstructs the sight;
The winds above it move the wood.----
One tree bends o'er the naked walls,
Two broad-winged eagles hover nigh.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Skinner (Harp and Claymore Collection), 1904; p. 17.

Recorded sources:

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