- Style
- Celtic
- Tradition
- Scottish
- Form
- Reel
- Key
- G
- Level
- 2
- Played on
- Fiddle
In the public domain. Source
Music
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
Nathaniel Gow printed it in 1809 as "an original Isle of Skye reel," sent to him by MacLeod of Raasay. The "Miss McLeod" may have been one or both of his sisters. A visitor to Connacht heard Galway pipers play it at a cake dance in 1779, so it was in Ireland early too.
It spread everywhere. In America it became "Hop High Ladies" and "Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe," and the Skillet Lickers recorded it in 1931. Thomas Hardy put it into The Mayor of Casterbridge as "Miss McLeod of Ayr." On his deathbed, Sliabh Luachra fiddler Pádraig O'Keeffe told Johnny O'Leary it was a great reel but that everyone was playing it wrong, and it should be played backwards.
Macaphee turn yer cattle roon loch o' Forum, Macaphee turn yer cattle roon loch o' Forum, Macaphee turn yer cattle roon loch o' Forum, Here and there and everywhere the kye are in the corn.