No.67

George Gordon Byron 1788-1824 

became known as Lord Byron and was regarded as one of the greatest of British poets. He was born in London but spent much of his boyhood in the north east of Scotland. 

Among his poetry is Dark Lochnagar written in 1807. It recalls the visits he used to make to that part of Aberdeenshire. The work has been set to a tune attributed to Sir Henry Bishop and is a popular standard in Scottish folk music.

Dark Lochnagar

Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses,

In you let the minions of luxury rove,

Restore me the rocks where the snow-flake reposes,

Though still they are sacred to freedom and love.

Yet Caledonia, beloved are thy mountains,

Round their white summits though elements war,

Though cataracts foam ‘stead of smooth-flowing fountains,

I sigh for the valley of dark Lochnagar.

Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander’d,

My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid.

On chieftains long perish’d my memory ponder’d

As daily I strode through the pine-cover’d glade.

I sought not my home till the day’s dying glory

Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star,

For fancy was cheer’d by traditional story

Disclos’d by the natives of dark Lochnagar!

Shades of the dead! Have I not heard your voices

Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?

Surely the soul of the hero rejoices,

And rides on the wind o’er his own Highland vale.

Round Lochnagar while the stormy mist gathers,

Winter presides in his cold icy car.

Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers;

They dwell in the tempests of dark Lochnagar.

Lochnagar in Winter
Thanks to the photographer Bruce McAdam

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