The song has often been dated to 1746, and it has long been associated with the
Jacobite rebellion. In December 1745,
Bonnie Prince Charlie retreated to Scotland, and the lyrics have been interpreted as a lament of the march. One of the soldiers rues his sacrifice for the king. In Celtic mythology, the "low road" was a
fairy route for a soldier's soul to return home when killed abroad. Another common interpretation is that the chorus are the final words spoken by one of the Jacobite rebels prior to his execution, perhaps in
Carlisle where dozens of rebels were executed. He sees his lover at the gallows and tells her they will meet again in Scotland, albeit by different routes. Ironically, the song became one of a handful of folk signifiers for British unity as the nation expanded
its empire. One of the earliest
sheet music printings of the ballad was in 1840 by Paterson and Sons in Edinburgh. It was titled "Bonnie Loch Loman" and credited to "a lady" with arrangements by Finlay Dunn and
John Thomson.
Lady John Scott was often cited as the composer of "Loch Lomond", but she only transcribed the melody and lyrics after hearing it sung by a boy in the Edinburgh streets. In his 1898 novel
Wild Eelin,
William Black has the title character, Eelin MacDonald, directly refute the idea that a street urchin in Edinburgh would ever sing the song, dismissing it as "spurious". The actual composer is unknown. Precedents for the tune have been found in several other folk songs, such as the Danish/Faroese tune "Dankonning lod gribe en havfrue fin" (The Dane-King Captured a Mermaid). "Loch Lomond" along with "The Oak and the Ash" also bear a resemblance to "Godesses", a tune in
John Playford's 1651 compilation
The Dancing Master. There are also similar melodic fragments in "The Bonniest Lass In A' The World" and "
The Bonnie House of Airlie".
Variants Both the 1840 sheet music and Lady John Scott's lyrics differ significantly from the most common form of the song today. There are even hyperlocal variants like the one that changes "'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen" to "We'll meet whaur we parted in bonnie
Luss glen". The song is often misattributed to Scottish poet and folklorist
Andrew Lang. In 1876, he wrote a poem called "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond, 1746". THERE's an ending o' the dance, and fair Morag's safe in France, And the Clans they hae paid the lawing, And the wuddy has her ain, and we twa are left alane, Free o' Carlisle gaol in the dawing. So ye'll tak the high road, and I'll tak the laigh road, An' I'll be in Scotland before ye: But me and my true love will never meet again, By the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond. For my love's heart brake in twa, when she kenned the Cause's fa', And she sleeps where there's never nane shall waken, Where the glen lies a' in wrack, wi' the houses toom and black, And her father's ha's forsaken. While there's heather on the hill shall my vengeance ne'er be still, While a bush hides the glint o' a gun, lad; Wi' the men o' Sergeant Môr shall I work to pay the score, Till I wither on the wuddy in the sun, lad! So ye'll tak the high road, and I'll tak the laigh road, An' I'll be in Scotland before ye: But me and my true love will never meet again, By the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond. "Wuddy" is a euphemism for a noose. "Sergeant Môr" is
John Du Cameron, a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie who continued fighting as an outlaw until he was captured and hanged in 1753. Several
Scots terms are used like "lawing" (reckoning) and "dawing" (dawn). In William Black's novel, Eelin MacDonald sings her own version of "Loch Lomond". It was popularized by Irish folk musician
Tommy Makem. Even though many people mistakenly believe that Makem wrote "Red Is the Rose", it is a traditional Irish folk song. ==Legacy==