Artillery Port

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

ARTILLERY PORT (J6x24) 3C set Ruary Laidlaw Lochiel Collection

1- 8 1s dance in, touch hands and cast to 3rd place (2s+3s step up). 1s turn RH (4 bars) 231
9-16 3s followed by 2s dance down (3 steps), cast up round 1s, meet and dance up to top and cast to 2nd place (2s cast into 1st place)
17-24 2s+3s+1s nearer hands joined advance towards top and retire to places. All turn partners RH. 231

Repeat 5 times

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Artillery Port
A 6 x 24 bar jig for two couples in a longwise three couple set.

1 - 8 The first couple dance in on the first two bars, touch inside hands, and cast off for two steps to third place on bars 3 and 4, while the second and third couples join inside hands and move up. The first couple turn with the right hand for four steps to finish in third place.
9-16 The third couple in second place, followed by the second couple in first place, dance down the middle for three steps with inside hands joined, cast up round the first couple in third place, lead up to the top for three steps with inside hands joined and cast off to second place ready to dance up, while the second couple lead up to the top with inside hands and cast round on the spot into first place ready to dance up.
17-24 The second, third and first couples, with inside hands joined, advance towards the top of the set (i.e. not towards each other), retire to their own sides and turn their partners for four steps with right hand.

Repeat with a new top couple.

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Ruary Laidlaw and others, 1995)

Dance Music

Artillery Port - Scottish Country Dance Music

Tunes: Gigue from Suite No. 3 BWV 1068, by J.S. Bach, James james Morrison Morrison.

Dance Information

This group frequently drank "Artillery Port" at the conclusion of a meal. We (Simon Barbour, Glenys Barbour, Patricia Digby-Smith, Christine Miller, Howard McNally and Glenys Pearce) decided at one of our evenings to compose a dance to commemorate it. At the time I had discovered that Bach's gigues were precisely that: jigs, and thought what a great idea it would be to do a dance to his music.

I don't know that Bach (or anyone else) would think that it was a good idea, but here it is anyway!

Published in The Lochiel Collection copyright 2005, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Ruary Laidlaw.
Music copyright Peter Elmes And His Band - The Lochiel Collection, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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