Mingulay Boat Song

Chorus
Heel yo ho boys, let her go boys,
Bring her head round and all together,
Heel yo ho boys, let her go boys,
Sailing homeward to Mingulay.

1. What care we though 
     white the Minch is?
What care we for wind or weather?
When we know that every inch is,
Sailing homeward to Mingulay.

2. When the wind is wild with shouting,
And the waves mount ever higher,
Anxious eyes turn ever seaward,
To see us home safe to Mingulay.

3. Ships return now heavy laden,
Sweethearts holding bairns a-crying,
They return now as the sun sets,
They return home to Mingulay.

4. Sweethearts waiting by the pierhead,
Or looking seaward from the heather,
Heave her 'round boys and we'll anchor,
Ere the sun sets on Mingulay.


Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952), conductor of the Orpheus Choir of Glasgow, published Songs of the Isles (1950), a collection of traditional tunes for which he invented English words. Mairi's Wedding (the Lewis Bridal Song), Westering Home and the Mingulay Boat Song were all popularized by Roberton and they remain perennial favorites.

The remote, barren island of Mingulay lies to the south of Barra in the Western Isles. Sometimes referred to as 'the nearer St Kilda', it was a crofting and fishing community of about 160 people until 1912. Isolation, infertile land, lack of a proper landing place and the absentee landlord problems familiar to the Western Isles and Highlands, resulted in a gradual disintegration of Mingulay's culture. The process of voluntary evacuation began in 1907 with land raids by the impoverished crofters to the neighbouring island of Vatersay, and Mingulay is now completely deserted. But summer visitors to Barra regularly brave the two-hour journey in exposed seas from Castlebay to Mingulay, inspired by Roberton's evocative but sentimental song, which has no connection with either the island or its people. [Mudcat Cafe]