I'll be in Scotland Afore Ye

By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
There me and my true love spent many happy days
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond

Oh, ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye
But trouble it is there, and mony hearts are sair
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

One interpretation of these verses emanates from events at Flodden, in 1513, when so many brave men, on both sides, lost their lives.

A Scotsman, lying on English soil, was saying to a comrade that, being mortally wounded, his spirit would reach Scotland before his unscathed friend.

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