Annotation:Cove of Cork

Find traditional instrumental music

Back to Cove of Cork


COVE OF CORK, THE. AKA and see "Groves of Blackpool (2) (The)," "Orchill's Favorite." Scottish Slow Air. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. Gow gives "Orchill's Favorite" as an alternate title. The Cove of Cork was the former name of Queenstown, Ireland. W.H. Bartlett (1841) writes:

The town, which is neatly built, has a busy lively look, and is cleaner than the generality of seaports. It can boast but few objects of antiquarian interest, being merely an insignificant village at the beginning of the present century; its subsequent importance has been in a great degree owing to the late war, during which Cork harbour was made a rendezvous station for the British navy. But the town owes its greatest celebrity to the mildness of its climate and its excellent situation, being open to the sea on the south, and encompassed on every other side by high hills, which effectively shelter it from the cold winds. This happy position, and the picturesque beauty of its environs, have for many years past made it a favourite resort for numbers of invalids, who as a medical writer remarks, "would otherwise have sought the far-off scenes of Montpellier or Madeira, with their vehement suns and less temperate vicissitudes of climate. The many recoveries here have justified the selection, and proved the restorative and invigorating principle of its atmosphere. An admirable equability of climate, and an absence of sudden and violent interruptions, are the great characteristics which have so beneficially marked out this town to the ailing and debilitated, establishing its reputation.

The ancient name of Cove was changed in 1849 to honor the occasion of the landing of Queen Victoria, however in 1922 it reverted back to Cobh of Cork.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Second Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1788; p. 14 (3rd edition).

Recorded sources:




Back to Cove of Cork