Annotation:Scolding Wives of Abertarff (The)
X:1 T:Scolding Wives of Abertarff, The M:C| L:1/8 R:”Dance and Song” B:Simon Fraser – Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland (1816, p. 28) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin f|dGBG B/c/d Tf2|dGBG B/c/d T=e2|dGBG B/c/d Tg2|dg ^f/g/a g2g:| a|bgdg dgbg|fdcf AFcA|bgdg dgbg|dg ^f/g/a Tg2 ga| bgdb caBg}Afcf AFcA|dGBG B/c/dTg2|dg ^f/g/a g2g||
SCOLDING WIVES OF ABERTARFF, THE (Mnathan trodach Obair-thairbh). Scottish, Reel (cut time). G Dorian (Athole, Fraser, Lowe): A Minor (Johnson). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "This air had its origin from an observation of the late parochial minister of Abertarff, who used to say, that of a number of respectable people, who loved there, they were never wthout some disputes that embittered their lives, chiefly among the females. These must have run high, when the minister christened the place by the epithet of 'Little Hell.' There are words by MacGruer" (Fraser). The tune was said by 19th century editor/collector Joseph Lowe to have been composed by Capt. Simon Fraser, although it was not directly claimed by him.
In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4) has this description of Abertarff, in the Highlands district:
Abertarf, a parish, with the seat of a presbytery, in the centre of Inverness-shire. The parish, named from the mouth of the Tarf rivulet, which enters the head of Loch Ness at Fort Augustus, lies principally on the NW side of Loch Ness,
It is perhaps another name for Fort Augustus.
