Primary Sources
C2 Argyle’s March C2.13: 34
CK one of Argyles Marches CK.1
D2 Marsail Alastair Charich D2.6: 25
K1 Batail an t-Sraim / The Battle of Lochcarron Point K1.69: 158
Notes on Gaelic Titles
Batail an t-Sroim Batail an t-Sraim K1; The Battle of Lochcarron Point K1. The Battle of Strome. Strome, or Strome Ferry, is on the shore of Loch Carron, so MacKay’s English title can be read as a clarification of his Gaelic one.
Màrsail Alasdair Charaich Marsail Alastair Charich D2. Alasdair Carrach’s March. According to Donald MacDonald, the subject was ‘a Highland hero, whose name is so familiar to the Highlanders, that little need be said concerning him, only that he is called by the poets, (A’n, duin’ b Allain bha’n Alba,) ‘The most renowned man in Scotland’. He has been identified (F.D. MacDonald, “Lecture to ‘a recent meeting of the London Gaelic Society,” as reported in The Oban Times, 10 December 1892, quoted by C. S. Thomason in a handwritten addition to the Donald MacDonald manuscript, folio 10r = page 9 of the printed ‘History of the Airs in this Volume’, 1892) as Alexander of the Isles, first chief of Keppoch, who fought at Harlaw (1411) and Inverlochy (1427). The reference is to the song Oran na Comhachaig by Dòmhnall Mac Fhionnlaigh nan Dàn, with the lines Chunnaic mi Alasdair Carrach / An duine as allail’ bha an Albainn. See W.J. Watson, Bardachd Ghàidhlig. 2nd edition, Stirling, (1932), p. 250, lines 6623-6624.
Other Material
2004 William Donaldson: Set Tunes Notes