The Loch Tay Boat Song

1. When I've done the work of day

and I rowed my boat away

down the waters of Loch Tay

when the evening light is falling

then I look toward Ben Lawers

where the after glories glow

and I dream of two bright eyes

with a merry mouth below

she's my beauteous nighean ruadh

she's my joy and sorrow too

though I own she is not true

oh but I cannot live without her

for my heart's a boat in tow

and I'd give the world to know

if she means to let me go

as I sing hori horo.

2. Nighean ruadh I do declare

there's more beauty in your hair

than all the tresses fair

from Killin to Aberfeldy

be they lint-white gold or brown

be they blacker than the sloe

they mean not as much to me

as a melting flake of snow

and her dance is like the gleam

of the sunlight on the stream

and the songs that we folk sing

oh they're the songs she sings at milking

but my heart is full of woe

for last night she bade me go

and the tears begin to flow

as I sing hori horo.

3.=1.