Hugh Robertson 1938
Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952) was conductor of the Orpheus Choir of Glasgow for which he made many choral arrangements of Scots songs. Mingulay 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. Ben Buxton’s 2017 book about Mingulay says “neither the words nor the melody originate anywhere near Mingulay; it is a romantic invention of the 20th century. It was devised in 1938 by Glasgow-born Sir Hugh Roberton, who was very fond of the melody of ‘Creag Ghuanach’, a song from Lochaber, which celebrates a crag near Loch Treig. He needed a sea shanty, and so he adapted the music, chose the romantic name Mingulay, and composed the words.”
Chorus: Hill you ho, boys; let her go, boys; Bring her head round, now all together. Hill you ho, boys; let her go, boys; Sailing home, home to Mingulay. What care we though white the Minch is? What care we for wind or weather? Let her go, boys! ev’ry inch is Wearing home, home to Mingulay. Wives are waiting on the bank, or Looking seaward from the heather; Pull her round, boys! and we’ll anchor, Ere the sun sets at Mingulay.