Loch Lomond song: words, meaning and Runrig’s version
A traditional Scots song first printed in 1840 or 1841; author unknown
The Loch Lomond song, “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond”, is a traditional Scots farewell between two lovers by an unknown author; the first known printing is an Edinburgh song sheet of 1840 or 1841. Jump to the words, Runrig’s versions or free recordings.
- First printing
- 1840/41
- Roud index number
- 9598
- UK peak, Runrig, 2007
- No. 9
- Words printed by Ford
- 1899
What is the Loch Lomond song about?
It is a farewell, and the “low road” is usually read as death: the singer will die, and his spirit will be back in Scotland before his love can travel home.
The verses remember the banks and hillsides where the two walked. The chorus is the part everyone knows: you take the high road, I take the low road, I will be in Scotland before you, but we will never meet again on the banks of Loch Lomond. The last verse says birds sing and flowers return every spring, but a broken heart gets no second spring.
Where the death reading comes from: Robert Ford, who printed these words in 1899, recorded a tradition that they were the farewell of one of Prince Charlie’s followers to his sweetheart before his execution at Carlisle after the 1745 rising. Ford called it a tradition, and the Traditional Ballad Index calls the link with the ’45 uncertain, so treat it as the best-known interpretation, not history.
Other readings change the date or the singer, not the meaning of the low road. Friends of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs notes that some place the prisoner in Carlisle in 1746, after Culloden, rather than when the Jacobite army passed through at the end of 1745, and reads the high road simply as the main road. A Glasgow street ballad of 1849 or later, “Flora’s Lament for her Charlie”, puts the same opening lines in the story of Flora MacDonald and the prince’s escape. The fairy road that carries a dead Scot’s soul home, often repeated online, is in none of these sources, nor in Ford.
The traditional words (lyrics)
This is the text Robert Ford printed in Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland (Paisley, 1899), the version most people sing today. It is long out of copyright. Runrig’s and other modern arrangements change and add words; those are copyright, so they are not reproduced here.
By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomon’,
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomon’.
ChorusO, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomon’.
’Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o’ Ben Lomon’,
Where in purple hue the Hieland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloamin’.
ChorusO, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road, …
The wee birdies sing, and the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleepin’;
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,
Tho’ the waefu’ may cease frae their greetin’.
ChorusO, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road, …
Text: Robert Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1899), pages 161 to 162. Ford’s printed page on the Internet Archive.
Chords: Ford printed the melody alone, in F major (one flat, common time), as the score in the pictures below shows. There is no traditional chord set, so every chord sheet you find is someone’s later arrangement.
Runrig’s Loch Lomond: which version is which
The Hampden version is how the song became a football anthem. BBC News reported in October 2007 that, at half time of Scotland’s European Championship qualifier against Ukraine, the voices of 50,000 fans were recorded as the backing for a new Runrig version for BBC Children in Need. BBC News said it would be released on Monday 12 November as the CD single “Loch Lomond (Hampden remix)” (Ridge RRS048), credited to Runrig ft Tartan Army. It was number 1 on the Scottish chart of 18 November and number 9 on the UK chart of 24 November 2007, four weeks on the chart. The band’s 1979 and 1982 recordings are in the table below.
Runrig did not write the song; they arranged it for a band, and it grew longer on stage: the official live video from the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, 2012, runs 8 minutes 10 seconds, against about 3 minutes for the 78s recorded in the 1930s. Three recordings you can play free:
- Runrig, live at the Barrowland, Glasgow, 2012The band’s own video on the Runrig Official YouTube channel, the channel linked from runrig.co.uk; 8 minutes 10 seconds.
- Joseph Hislop, tenor and orchestra, 1931With an orchestra conducted by Lawrence Collingwood, on His Master’s Voice; 3 minutes 17 seconds, on the Internet Archive.
- Maxine Sullivan, swing, recorded 1937The swing hit with Claude Thornhill, from a 1943 British Parlophone pressing whose label says “in fox-trot tempo”; 3 minutes 2 seconds, on the Internet Archive.
The song and its loch in pictures
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Versions and recordings that shaped the song, 1840s to 2019
Dates and catalogue numbers come from the library that holds the item, the Official Charts Company or the discographies named in our sources. This is not a full discography: it lists the versions that changed how the song is known.
| Version | When | Details | Why it is listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Bonnie Loch Loman”Song sheet, Paterson & Roy, Edinburgh | 1840 or 1841 | Sheet music arranged by Finlay Dun and John Thomson, with the loch spelled “Loman”. | The first known printing, held by the Morgan Library in New York. Whether it also appeared in the book The Vocal Melodies of Scotland is disputed. |
| “Flora’s Lament for her Charlie”Broadside, Robert MacIntosh, Glasgow | 1849 or later | A street ballad sheet that opens “It’s yon bonny banks, and yon bonny braes”. | An early Jacobite framing in print, kept by the National Library of Scotland (RB.m.168(178)). |
| “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond”Robert Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland | 1899 | The three verses and chorus most people sing, plus a second set of verses that Ford says Lady John Scott picked up in the streets of Edinburgh. | The source of the words on this page, and of the Carlisle tradition. |
| Early recordingsGeorge Alexander; Henry Burr | 1906 and 1908 | Columbia 3294 and Victor 16062, both listed by the Traditional Ballad Index. | Early American commercial records of the song, made decades before the versions people remember. |
| “Loch Lomond” (swing)Maxine Sullivan with Claude Thornhill | 6 August 1937 | A swing arrangement recorded with Thornhill’s septet. | A hit, and some radio stations refused to play a swung folk song, which helped sales. |
| “Loch Lomond” (album track, then single)Runrig, The Highland Connection; Ridge single | 1979 and 1982 | Track 5 of the album on the band’s own Ridge label (RR001, 5:08), then a 7-inch single (Ridge RRS003, 4:21). | Runrig’s first recordings of the song; the single entered the UK chart on 8 January 1983 and peaked at number 86, for one week. |
| “Loch Lomond (Hampden remix)”Runrig ft Tartan Army | 2007 | CD single, Ridge RRS048, with the Hampden crowd on backing vocals, for BBC Children in Need. | Runrig’s only UK top 10 single. |
| The Last DanceRunrig, farewell concerts | 2018, released 2019 | The farewell shows at City Park, Stirling, released on 16 August 2019 with “Loch Lomond” on disc 3. | Billed as the last time the band would play it live; the Press Association reported a total crowd of 47,000 over the two shows. |
Chart positions are from the Official Charts Company. Runrig catalogue numbers come from a detailed fan-run discography, because the band’s own site does not list them.
What the Scots words mean, line by line
“By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes”
Yon means “those over there”: the singer points at a place they can see or remember. Bonnie is pretty, and a brae is a hillside, “the brow of a hill” in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
“Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae”
Wont to gae means “used to go”. The tense matters: the walks are over before the song starts.
“Ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road”
Two ways home to Scotland. The low road is usually read as the grave, so the singer’s spirit gets home first (where that reading comes from). The words themselves never say who dies.
“And the moon coming out in the gloamin’”
The gloaming is evening twilight, dusk, and Hieland is Highland: the lovers part on the hillside as the moon rises.
“The broken heart it kens nae second spring again”
Kens nae means “knows no”; in the next line the waefu’ are the sorrowful and greetin’ is weeping. Grieving people stop crying in the end, but a broken heart gets no second spring. That line keeps the song sad however it is arranged.
Documented, or legend?
- Disputed: that the song appeared in The Vocal Melodies of Scotland (1841), as the Traditional Ballad Index and many others say. The Morgan Library, citing the music historian James Fuld, says it is in none of that collection’s four volumes.
- Unknown: the author. The Ballad Index lists Lady John Scott’s authorship among the legends, and Ford quoted a Crieff man, Mr Kippen, who had heard it sung in the streets more than sixty years before 1899.
- Disputed: the tune. The music historian John Purser, who also complained of performances with an “inane chirpiness”, links it to “The Bonnie Hoose o’ Airlie”; others link it to “The Lowlands of Holland”, and the Irish “Red Is the Rose” shares it. The Ballad Index calls the matter unsettled.
Where to see the bonnie banks
The song names only Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond, and Ben Lomond stands on the east shore. For the view in the second verse, the mountain across the water, go to Luss or Inveruglas on the west shore; to climb the “steep, steep side” itself, start at Rowardennan. Trains, buses and the A82 are covered in getting to Loch Lomond.
- Luss: the easiest Ben Lomond viewBen Lomond across the water, 9 miles north of Balloch on the A82; bus 305 from Balloch or the Ember E5 coach from Glasgow (some E5 journeys must be booked ahead). For the shore itself, the marked Lochside Path from the village takes 15 minutes. Ford’s 1899 notes print a Luss set of verses that puts the parting in “bonnie Luss Glen”. More in our Luss village guide.
- Inveruglas: the mountain from the north-westBen Lomond and the Arrochar Alps across the water from the An Ceann Mor viewpoint. The Park’s 2019 access guide puts it 126 m from the visitor centre (G83 7DW), with 31 steps to the upper level, and the bus stop on the A82 outside Loch Sloy Power Station; check with the National Park that the viewpoint is open before you go. See our Inveruglas guide.
- Rowardennan: the “steep, steep side” itselfThe Ben Lomond tourist path climbs 990 m from Rowardennan on the east shore to the 974 m summit, the mountain where the second verse sets the parting; allow 4.5 to 5.5 hours.
- Balloch and Balmaha: the banks from the water and from aboveFor the banks at water level, the cruise boats leave from the riverside by Balloch station (both G83 8SS), and Balloch Castle Country Park has open shore; more in our Balloch village guide. For the banks from above, the Conic Hill walk climbs 350 m from Balmaha village to a 361 m top over the loch, 2 to 3 hours; bus 309 from Balloch.
A second life in Cologne
The City of Cologne says the FC Köln anthem “Mer stonn zo dir, FC Kölle”, recorded by the Höhner, has its origin in “Loch Lomond”. On 18 June 2024, the evening before Scotland played Switzerland in Cologne at Euro 2024, the city held a free singalong at the Tanzbrunnen where Scottish singers and the Höhner took verses in turn.
Questions people ask
What is the story behind the Loch Lomond song?
Nobody knows for certain. The best-known story, a tradition Robert Ford recorded in 1899, makes it the farewell of one of Prince Charlie’s followers to his sweetheart before his execution at Carlisle after the 1745 rising; the Traditional Ballad Index calls the link with the ’45 uncertain.
What is the original Loch Lomond song?
The earliest known printing is the Edinburgh song sheet “Bonnie Loch Loman” (Paterson & Roy, 1840 or 1841), author unknown. The words most people sing are the three verses and chorus Robert Ford printed in 1899. Runrig’s version, first recorded in 1979, is a modern arrangement of that traditional song, not the original.
What is the meaning of you take the high road and I'll take the low road?
The low road is usually read as death: the singer will die, and his spirit will reach Scotland before his love can travel there, while the high road is the ordinary main road. The words themselves never say who dies.
Is Loch Lomond Irish or Scottish?
The words are Scottish: they are in Scots (yon, braes, gloamin’), name a Scottish loch and mountain, and the early printings we know of are from Edinburgh (1840 or 1841) and Glasgow (1849 or later). The tune is less certain: the Irish “Red Is the Rose” shares it, the Clancy family held that the Irish song came first, and the Traditional Ballad Index calls the tune’s origin unsettled.
Is the Loch Lomond song about Bonnie Prince Charlie?
Not in its words, which name nobody. The link is tradition: Ford recorded it in 1899 as a Jacobite follower’s farewell before execution at Carlisle, and a Glasgow street ballad of 1849 or later, “Flora’s Lament for her Charlie”, sets the same opening lines in the story of the prince’s escape. The Traditional Ballad Index calls the connection with the ’45 uncertain.
When did Runrig record Loch Lomond?
First on the album The Highland Connection in 1979, then as a 1982 single, and again in 2007 with 50,000 Scotland fans at Hampden on backing vocals, for the BBC Children in Need single “Loch Lomond (Hampden remix)”.
What key is Loch Lomond in, and what are the chords?
Robert Ford printed the tune in 1899 in F major, as a melody line with no chords. There is no traditional chord set, so any chord sheet is a later arrangement.
Where can I find Runrig’s Loch Lomond lyrics?
Runrig’s arrangement is copyright, so this page prints only the traditional 1899 words. To sing along, use the band’s official live video from the Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, 2012, on the Runrig Official YouTube channel.
Where are the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond?
Anywhere on the loch shore; the song names only Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond. For the view in the second verse, Ben Lomond across the water, go to Luss or Inveruglas on the west shore; to climb its “steep, steep side”, start at Rowardennan on the east shore.