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Tune The Dark Island 3646

Also known as “Dr Mackay's Farewell to Creagorry”, “Dr McInnes' Farewell to South Uist”.

Composed by
Traditional
Published in

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Thanks to Iain Gent (and others) for the following information:

This tune is considered “traditional” and used to be known variously as “Dr Mackay’s Farewell to Creagorry” or “Dr. McInnes’ Farewell to South Uist”. It was subsequently adapted for the 1963 BBC production called “The Dark Island”, which is presumably where the Iain McLaughlin comes in that the tune is attributed to in Ceol na Fidhle Volume 1.

There are various sets of words of different degrees of cheesiness and the copyright situation for these is very convoluted. See here for more than you ever wanted to know about the topic.

NB. If you’re playing this tune at an event that needs to submit a tune list to avoid GEMA (German music collection agency) fees, be sure to write this up as “Dr Mackay’s Farewell to Creagorry” rather than “The Dark Island”, or they will hassle you because thanks to the BBC they’ll probably think “The Dark Island” belongs to them. Chances are they will never have heard of the other title.

HiddenNameArtistTypePosClip
Dark Island, The The Dark Island George Bell and his Band L 1/3
Dark Island, The The Dark Island David South and his Scottish Dance Band L 1/1
Dark Island, The The Dark Island Simon Howie and his Scottish Dance Band W 1/2
HiddenNameTypeShapeAuthorComment
Dark Island, The The Dark Island ¾404/4L John Drewry
IdSubjectDateSubmitterAssigned toPriorityDisposition
299 The Dark Island Sept. 29, 2013, 8:19 p.m. Iain Gent Heiko Schmidt Normal Fixed