Scottish Country Dance

We have played for many Scottish country dancing groups throughout the country. We have played at various Day Schools and courses both for classes and dances, including Summer School at St Andrews, The Tunbridge Wells Day School, The Isle of Wight Day School, Bath Day School and Argylls Day and Weekend Schools. We are particularly interested in using traditional fiddle music from such composers as Niel Gow, Robert Mackintosh and William Marshall.

These are some of the groups we have played for in recent years:

Country Dance at Harrow School 2007

The Scottish Association for Wallington, Carshalton and District, Cuckfield Mid-Sussex Club, Argyll Day and Weekend School, Abergavenny SCD, Cockermouth SCD Club, The Lakes Club, Hawkeshead Scottish Country Dancers, Bristol RSCDS, Bracknell Reel Club Annual Ball, Reigate SCD Club, Hereford RSCDS, Southsea Reel Club, Cambridge RSCDS, London RSCDS, Bath RSCDS Day School, Cheltenham RSCDS, Luxembourg SCD Assn, Oxford University SCD Club, Brighton & Hove SCD Club, The Highland Club, RSCDS Summer School (Younger Hall), Rechberg Ball, The Lucy Clark Dancers, Bridport Scottish Dancers, I.O.W. Cal. Soc, St. Michael’s SCD Group, The Cairngorms Dancers, Medway and District Caledonian Assn, The MacLennan Group, Tonbridge Day School, Stafford Caledonian Assn, Derby Caleonian Assn, Amersham Caledonian Assn, Canterbury Scottish Assn, Dover Caledonian Assn, Spiffin SCD Group, Norwich RSCDS, Montpellier Scottish Dance Club, Luckenbooth Dancers, Dulwich SCD, York RSCDS, Peterborough RSCDS, Paris RSCDS, Bridport SCD, East Grinstead SCD, Oxford and Cambridge Highland Ball, Cologne SCD Club, Dover SCD Assn, RSCDS Leeds, RSCDS Bedford, RSCDS San Francisco.

Meryl has been resarching the history of some of the SCD dances. Read her articles in the RSCDS London Branch magazine The Reel.

“The Nut” from RSCDS Book 1 –  Reel 311 page 13

“Lady Susan Stewart’s Reel” from RSCDS Book 5 – Reel 317 page 7

“Lady Glasgow” – Reel 319 page 7

“The College Hornpipe” – Reel 320 page 14

Lady Dorothea Ruggles-Brise ( a friend to Scottish traditional music and dance) – Reel 321 page 11

“Auld Lang Syne” – Reel 322 page 9

“None So Pretty” – Reel 323 page 9

History of popular ceilidh dances – Reel 324 page 12

Where have all the traditional dances gone – Reel 325 page 10

Robert Burns and dancing amongst the corn – Reel 326 page 10

Occurrence of 40 bar dances in RSCDS publications – Reel 327 page 10

The two Henry Bishops – Reel 328 page 10

Fight About the Fireside – Reel 329 page 10

Meryl’s Tunes

Since we started playing for Scottish Country Dancing in 1998, I wrote (on occasion) tunes for us to play in our sets. These can be downloaded below:

Jigs

  1. 40 years young
  2. Abigail’s Jig
  3. Becky’s Ballet Shoes
  4. Bird and the Mouse, The
  5. Cat in the Bag
  6. Catkin Jig, The
  7. Christmas Past
  8. Christmas Present
  9. Clay Court, The
  10. Cold Cat, The
  11. Daisy Jig, The
  12. Gasman, The
  13. George’s Hernia
  14. Gremlin, The
  15. Hills of Purley, The
  16. Hoppalong, The
  17. Joan’s Birthday Jig
  18. Jonty’s Jig
  19. Long Wait, The
  20. Make mine a large one
  21. Miss Jenny Green’s Jig
  22. Mrs Chaplin-Garret’s Jig
  23. Mrs Jenny Lee
  24. Night Sky, The
  25. On the Road
  26. Raincloud, The
  27. Skipping Along
  28. T.P.O. Jig, The
  29. Weary Footsteps
  30. What’s the Hurry

Marches

  1. George Thomson’s Ramble
  2. Pacing the Floor

Reels

  1. Cool Ginger Reel, The
  2. Downpour, The
  3. Hot Ginger Reel
  4. Mrs Jenny Lee’s Reel
  5. Mrs Olive Hicklin’s 98th Birthday Reel
  6. Olympic Reel
  7. Ray’s Half Century Reel
  8. Stormy Bay
  9. Viv’s Baseball Cap
  10. Warm Ginger Reel, The

Waltzes

  1. Crystallised Ginger Waltz, The
  2. Mrs Caroline Sloan
  3. Root Ginger Waltz, The
  4. Scottish Perpetuum, A
  5. Stem Ginger Waltz, The
  6. Syncopated Waltz