Dark Lochnagar
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
DARK LOCHNAGAR (S8x32) 2C (4C set) Iain Boyd SCD Archives1- 8 1s+2s set and link, set and link back to places
9-16 1s+2s dance reel of 4 across, 1M passes 2L LSh to start, end with 1L+2M passing RSh to flow into...
17-20 1s+2s dance a Little Spiral (dancers advance, turn right about, dance out to places and dance in passing partner RSh) to change places
21-24 1s+2s dance "Big Spiral" (dancers advance diagonally, turn right about to places and chase clockwise ½ way) to progress
25-32 2s+1s dance R&L
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Dance Notes
Bars 9-16: The deviser's original instructions stipulate that 1L and 2M finish the reel by passing right shoulders. This preserves the flow into the next figure.Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Dark Lochnagar - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The title of this dance, Dark Lochnagar, comes from the Lachin y Gair - Poem written by George Gordon Byron, (Lord Byron), British poet, peer, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic movement."Lachin y Gair", often known as "Dark Lochnagar" or "Loch na Garr", was written in 1807 and discusses the author's childhood in north east Scotland, when he used to visit Lochnagar in Highland Aberdeenshire. It is perhaps one of the poet's most Scottish works, both in theme and sentiment. In the third and fourth stanzas, Byron mentions his Jacobite ancestors who haunt the area, and in the fifth stanza, Byron laments his exile from Scotland.
Lachin y Gair, first stanza:
In you let the minions of luxury rove;
Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love:
Yet, Caledonia, belov'd are thy mountains,
Round their white summits though elements war;
Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains,
I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr.
Lochnagar or Beinn Chìochan is a mountain in the Grampians of Scotland, located about five miles south of the River Dee near Balmoral.

Lochnagar Face Seen From Meikle Pap
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Text from this original Lochnagar article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Lachin y Gair article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright David White.
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