Loch Loskin

This small and attractive 6 acre loch is in the hills a mile above Dunoon (beside the A885 Sandbank road) and seems to be used mostly for freshwater fishing these days, although it's also nice just to sit on the banks!



I very recently found out that my favourite pipe tune, 'Lochanside', which I've loved for many years, was named after this loch! It was written by Pipe Major John McLellan remembering his time spent along the attractive and secluded shores. McLellan (born 1875), a multi-talented man by all accounts, was from Dunoon.

Lochanside is played on You Tube here.

There is another interesting arrangement here - this time a song by Jim Malcolm, the Scottish folk music artist and songwriter, set to the same tune and sung by Tich Frier (words below).

Come the winter, cold and dreary
Brings the hawk down from the high scree
to the whins where snowy hares hide
All around the Lochanside
Come the spring the land lies weary
Till the sun shines out so cheery
Brings the bloom, for all of June's pride
All around the Lochanside
If you'd been you¹d have seen the scatter
O the peezies o'er the machair
When above the tawny owl glides
All around the Lochanside
And the heron he comes a-creeping
Through the rashes so green and dreeping
to the pool where wily trout slide
All around the Lochanside

Aye if you ever have a reason
To be here in any season
Come and try the barley bree in
Round the fire on Lochanside
Summer time the fish are louping
Dippers in the burnies couping
Swallows fly from dawn til evens-tide
All around the Lochanside
By the autumn the pinks are winging
Blaeberries o'er the moors are hanging
Salmon through the surging spate fight
All around the Lochanside

If ye'd been ye'd have seen the scatter
O the peezies o'er the machair
When above the tawny owl glides
All around the Lochanside
Aye if you ever have a reason
To be here in any season
Come and try the barley bree in
Round the fire on Lochanside
Aye if you ever have a notion
To be welcomed with devotion
Travel home o'er any ocean
To be here on Lochanside

However, the words I know best were written and sung (to the same tune) by Andy Stewart many years ago and can be heard here.

By The Lochside

In the spring when the world was young, then,
And the sweet songs of youth were sung, then
By the lochside I met a maiden,
And my heart longed to call her mine.

She was fairer than words can say, man,
And her smile made the world gay, man,
But like springtime, she would not stay, man,
Though my heart longed to call her mine.

But I would wait a thousand years, now,
I would shed a thousand tears, now,
No more sadness and no more fears, now,
If the lass lets me call her mine.

Summer came with her million flowers,
Summer time that was made for lovers,
Hand-in-hand, strolling through her bowers,
But my love would not walk with me.

Warm the day when the sun is shining,
Warm the love when in love reclining,
Cold the heart that for love is pining,
Cold the love that can never be.

But I would wait a thousand years, now,
I would shed a thousand tears, now,
No more sadness and no more fears, now
If the lass lets me call her mine.

Summer's gone and the Winter's cold, now,
With his grey hand has laid his hold now,
And the story of love is told, now,
But the story can never end.

By the lochside a bird is singing,
Sad the song from his heart is ringing,
Now he leaves and is swiftly winging,
Leaving me waiting here alone.

But I would wait a thousand years, now,
I would shed a thousand tears, now,
No more sadness and no more fears, now
If the lass lets me call her mine.