Annotation:Sir Allan McLean's Reel
SIR ALLAN McLEAN'S REEL. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Robert Ross's 1780 collection (p. 37).
The title may refer to Sir Allan MacLean [1] of Inchkenneth, a small island in the district of Mull in the Hebrides. When Dr. Johnson and Boswell visited the island is 1773, Sir Allan, formerly a Colonel in the British army, was chief of the clan and played host to the pair. "This island," recorded Dr. Johnson, "is about a mile long, and perhaps half-a-mile broad, remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan MacLean and two young ladies, his daughters, with their servants. Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more than this little desert, in those depths of western obscurity, occupied not by a gentleman and two ladies, of high birth, polished mannerss, and elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, bur furnished with unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness of hospitality and refinement of courtesy." Sir Allen died in 1783.