Dunkeld Bridge and Craigie Barns, photographed by George Washington Wilson.CRAIG O'/OF BARN'S, THE. AKA and see "Fair Wedding (The)." Scottish; Strathspey or Highland Schottische. G Minor (Alburger, Athole, Gow): A Mixolydian (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Alburger, Athole, Gow): AABB (Kerr). The strathspey is one of the best-known compositions of Atholl gamekeeper and fiddler-composer John Crerar (1750–1840), who probably had lessons from Niel Gow at Atholl, arranged by Crerar's employer, Wikipedia:John_Murray,_4th_Duke_of_Atholl. Craig-y-barns, or A' chreag bheàrnach, is a range of rugged heights sheltering Dunkeld, Perthshire, located (as Crerar researcher Eilidh Scammell remarks) directly behind Crerar's own house at Pulney. Scammell points out the the Craig is now heavily wooded and a favorite mecca for rock climbers, but in Crerar's day it was quite barren, with the crags prominent[1]
Paul Cranford thinks the Cape Breton tune "MacKinnon's Rant" is related to this melody. Multi-instrumentalist John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria) entered the melody into his large 1840 music manuscript collection under the title "The Craig of Burns."
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 74, p. 118.
Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 448.
Davie (Caledonian Repository), 1829–30; p. 22.
Gow (Complete Repository, Part 2), 1802; p. 13.
Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 8, p. 19 (Highland Schottische setting).
Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 192.
Recorded sources : - WMT002, Wendy MacIsaac – "That's What You Get" (1998?, as "Fair Wedding").
See also listing at : Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1].
