Annotation:Auchdon House

AUCHDON HOUSE. AKA- "Twa Craw" (song). AKA and see "Haughton House." Scottish, March. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. Played in the Shetland Islands (especially Uist) as a wedding march, and sometimes labeled a "Shetland tune". However, the melody is mainland Scottish in character and appears to have been originally called "Haughton House" (the "Auchdon House" probably being a miss-hearing). Haughton House is a manor in Aberdeenshire, near the village of Alford on the banks of the Don. Nigel Gatherer notes it was composed by a James Mitchell, and was published on a single sheet with variations by James Scott Skinner. The tune is similar to the melody of the Scottish folksong "Twa Craw:"

There were twa craw, sitting in a tree,

Sitting in a tree, sitting in a tree;

There were twa craw, sitting in a tree,

On a cold and frosty morning.

It was recorded by County Clare fiddler Joe Ryan (on "An Buchaille Dreoíte", where he lists it as a Shetland tune)-much in the rhythm of a barndance-and as a result has some currency in Irish sessions, however, all Irish sources seem to lead back to Ryan, who is said to have learned the tune in Dublin from a musician who had learned the tune in the Shetlands.

Printed source: Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 134, pg. 82.

Recorded sources: Cló Iar Chonnachta CICD 165, John Wynne & John McEvoy - "Pride of the West" (2007). Greentrax C9004, Jimmy Johnson (fiddle, with harmonium accompaniment by Pat Sutherland) - "Scottish Tradition - Shetland Fiddle Music." Philo 1031, Boys of the Lough - "Lochaber No More" (appears as "Haughton House," identified as a Shetland tune).