Òran Luaidh (Waulking Songs)

Locheil
Feb 13, 2021
2 min read

Women of the Western Isles, Scotland, waulking cloth.

(If anyone knows the source of this picture please let me know. I did due diligence trying to locate the owner but could not find it referenced anywhere online, tapadh leibh.)

The cadence of a particular waulking song is indelibly sealed in my memory and it came to the forefront of my mind after a particularly long day of walking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a few years back. "Da, data, da da da da, Da data da da da da" reverberating in my memory all day as I walked the streets of Edinburgh, from Fringe venue to Fringe venue, with my girls in tow. The cadence mirrored my childhood walks in Lochaber with my mother and elder brothers. We would set off in the morning looking for the "wee Broch on the hill" and return at dusk, usually unsuccessful, but elated and bone tired - the kind of good tired that makes a sleep by the fire the ultimate reward.

On this sunny afternoon I happened to step into a music shop just off the Royal Mile and relayed to the attendant in my broken, uninformed Gàidhlig, the only words I could remember from the long forgotten crevices of my mind. I relayed that "it went like this, 'hey matu erioyo hoy you ho o'" and astonishingly the girls' face lit up and she said "oh yes we have that!" - no one was more surprised than I.

The song is "Hè Mandu" and can be found on a CD called "Scottish Tradition 2: Music From the Western Isles" by the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University and produced by Greentrack Records (Music From The Western Isles (greentrax.com). I was delighted to find "Dheanainn sùgradh ris an nighean dubh" (I would make merry with the black haired girl) as the second track I remember it well, mum would sing it when she wanted us to walk faster.

The waulking songs of the Western Isles are the female equivalent of the male sea shanties; they were a socially cohesive action of communal bonding and togetherness, bringing levity to mundane and lengthy tasks. The waulking was performed usually on a large table with the wool cloth being sent clockwise, whilst soaked with ammonia, to shrink, fluff, set and waterproof the cloth.

Interestingly, each piece of mouth music, like the waulking songs resemble sea shanties, as they are composed for a particular chore/task and the rhythmic cadence pertains to the specific job at hand. There were some set songs, but frequently these tunes were interactive and morphing wit, sometimes in a question and answer format. You can try this yourself after listening to the tune, especially fun with young children. Try this format: Leader Members Together

Hè Mandu (4 beat response)