Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Baldovan Strathspey

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

BALDOVAN STRATHSPEY (S4x32) 4C set Douglas Henderson Baldovan Dances

1- 8 1s and 3s cross RH and change places LH on sides with 2s/4s, repeat back to places
9-16 1s cross RH and dance reflection reels of 3 on opposite sides dancing outside 2s to start
17-24 1s pass RSh and cast to 2nd place own side to dance reels of 3 on own sides dancing down between 3s to start (1s end in 2nd place)
25-32 2s+1s+3s set, 2s set again as 1s cast 1 place and 3s lead up, 3s+1s+4s set, 3s set again as 1s cast and 4s lead up

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


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Information

Also see the dance Baldovan Jig by Douglas Henderson, from Baldovan Set Dances (Paperback 1960 by Douglas Henderson).
Also see the dance Baldovan Reel by Douglas Henderson, from Baldovan Set Dances (Paperback 1960 by Douglas Henderson).

Baldovan Strathspey was devised by Douglas Henderson who lived for a time in Dundee and named it after Baldovan, an old village to the north of Strathmartine which is itself to the north of Dundee, in the Scottish county of Angus.

Baldovan village was developed most significantly in the 1830s in order to expand Dundee to the north.

For a long while the village became an independent community with their own tram terminus and railway station, Baldovan and Downfield, serving the northern suburbs of Dundee around Strathmartine, including Bridgefoot, Downfield and Baldovan. Services were provided by the Dundee and Newtyle Railway.

Baldovan village however, is no longer there having been substantially swallowed up in Dundee's later redevelopments, only now remembered in Baldovan Road, which runs from Strathmartine to Downfield.

Recommended Music: Baldovan Strathspey composed by Betty Low, published in Baldovan Set Dances.

poster for Baldovan Set Dances from the 1960s
Baldovan Set Dances, 1960

Baldovan village in 1974
Baldovan 1974


Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Baldovan Railway Station article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Ben Brooksbank under this Creative Commons Licence 2.0.

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