Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge

258. Broughty Wa's

A young woman is carried off from Broughty Castle, near Dundee, by a body of armed Highlanders. Her lover, who is making her a visit at the time, is either taken along with her — an unnecessary incumbrance, one would think — or follows her. The pair go out to take the air; she throws herself into a river; her lover leaps in after her and is drowned. She kilts up her clothes and makes her way to Dundee, congratulating herself that she had learned to swim for liberty.

This page most recently updated on 10-Dec-2010, 19:08:48.
Return to main index