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My Heart’s in the Highlands

[ Roud 5878 ; G/D 3:521 ; Ballad Index GrD3521 ; Robert Burns]

Karine Polwart sang My Heart’s in the Highlands in 2001 on the Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 9.

Shona Donaldson and Katie Mackenzie sang My Heart’s in the Highlands in 2009 on their duo Pūr’s album of songs of Robert Burns in Scots and Gaelic, The Lassies’ Reply.

Orkney group Fara sang My Heart’s in the Highlands in 2014 on their eponymous first album, Fara, and in 2016 on their album Cross the Line. They noted:

Jeana [Leslie] was gifted a number of song books after the loss of a family friend. Looking through them with her Mum, she found this haunting song. We were tempted to make it ‘Islands’, but thought Burns might have had something to say!

Lorna Anderson sang My Heart’s in the Highlands on Concerto Caledonia’s 2020 album of music from Scotland in the early Australian colonies, Songs of Home and Distant Isles. They give as their source A Selection of Original Scots Songs in Three Parts. The harmony by Haydn, vol. 2 (1792).

Lyrics

Karine Polwart sings My Heart’s in the Highlands

Chorus (after each verse):
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe –
My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of valour, the country of worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with snow;
Farewell to the straths and green valleys below:
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

Pūr sing My Heart’s in the Highlands

Chorus (after each verse):
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild deer and following the roe –
My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell tae the Highlands, farewell tae the North,
The birthplace of valour, the country of worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell tae the mountains, high cover’d with snow;
Farewell tae the straths and green valleys below;
Farewell tae the forests and wild hanging woods;
Farewell tae the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

Tha mo chridhe ’sa Ghàidhealtachd, chan eil e mu Dheas
Tha mo chridhe ’sa Ghàidhealtachd air tòir nan damh clis
A’ruagach nan aighean, ’s a’ leantainn nan grèidh
Ged dh’fhàgainn a’Ghàidhealtachd, is ann tha mo dhèidh.