The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
in this neighbourhood. But, as recently as 1933, the
compositions of Padruig Mor resounded through western
Skye when a memorial cairn was raised to the
MacCrimmons at Borreraig, and a mural tablet to them
unveiled in the old Churchyard of Kilmuir, in Dunvegan,
where moulders the dust of some of the Chiefs of the
MacLeods of Skye. Inscribed on the cairn is a Gaelic
legend, of which the following is a translation : " The
Memorial Cairn of the MacCrimmons, of whom ten
generations were the hereditary pipers of MacLeod, and
who were renowned as Composers, Performers, and
Instructors of the Classical Music of the Bagpipe. Near to
this spot stood the MacCrimmon School of Music,
1500-1800."
CIm till, cha till, cha till MacCruimcin,
An cogadh no 'n sith, cha till c tuillcadh ;
Lc airgid no ni cha till MacCruimein,
Cha till c gu brath gu la na cruinne.
MacCrimmon will never, will never return.
In war or in peace, he will come no more
With riches or otherwise MacCrimmon will
return not :
He will not come ever till the Gathering-day.
But the sea-cliffs and caverns at Borreraig are haunted
and, in the cry of
yet by the ghosts of the ancient pipers ;
the seabirds, the man with the ear for pibroch may detect a
strav note of the art that vanished with them.
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