A’ Bhòilich or The Vaunting is a piece of ceòl mór, said to have been composed by Raghnall Mac Ailein Òig¹.

The earliest written source for this tune is Donald MacDonald’s manuscript from the 1820s². It remains a well-known tune to pipers, with written settings in many of the main 19th and 20th century pibroch collections³.

Late 18th and early 19th century tune lists give a number of variations in the title of this tune, with correspondingly different English translations⁴. The English title given with the c.1820 manuscript setting of the tune is ‘an intended lament’, and there is a story about Ranald composing the tune, to explain this title⁵.

Recordings

John D. Burgess (pipes), ‘The Vaunting / A’ Bhòilich’, 1960, University of Edinburgh School of Scottish Studies tape SA1960.224.A1, online at Tobar an Dualchais.

A clarsach setting of this tune is included on my new CD, Tarbh.

---

References

1. The attribution to Ranald is from Donald MacDonald’s notes to his tunes (unpublished), 1826, NLS MS 1680. Online at piobaireachd.co.uk. ^

2. An intended lament, Donald MacDonald’s manuscript, 1826, NLS MS 1680, p.223-228. Online at piobaireachd.co.uk. ^

3. William Donaldson, ‘The Vaunting’, Piper & Drummer magazine , 2001-02. Online at pipesdrums.com. This paper presents editions of all of the early bagpipe settings of the tune. ^

4. Iain MacInnes, The Highland bagpipe: the impact of the Highland Societies of London and Scotland, 1781-1844, M.Litt thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1988 (unpublished), p.163-4. Online at cl.cam.ac.uk. ^

5. An Bhoalaich, or an intended lament, Donald MacDonald’s notes to his tunes (unpublished), 1826. NLS MS 1680. Online at piobaireachd.co.uk. ^