Erraid
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Erraid (4x32R) 32 bar reel for four couples in a square set, Murrough Landon, 2021.1-8 1st and 3rd couples each dance figures of eight round the nearest side couples, starting by dancing in. They end facing their partner in original places.
9-16 All dance interlocking rights and lefts. 1st and 3rd couples start by changing places with their partner giving right hands while 2nd and 4th couples cross over giving right hands. All end facing their partner in original places.
17-20 All set to their partner. Then the men pull back their right shoulder and cast into the next woman's place clockwise. Meanwhile the women dance forward to the next man's place clockwise and turn to face the place they just left. All are now facing their corner person. This figure is similar to the Set to Corners and Cast Away figure.
21-24 All repeat bars 17-20 from new places and face their partner in the order 4,1,2,3.
25-28 All turn their partner once round with the right hand and end facing their corner.
29-32 All dance back to back with their corner starting by passing left shoulder. The final order is 4,1,2,3.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA July 2021)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Erraid - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The title comes, circuitously, from the Set to Corners and Cast Away figure of bars 17-24.The island of Erraid is where David Balfour, the hero of Robert Louis Stephenson's novel Kidnapped, thought he was stranded as a castaway.
Erraid is actually linked to Mull at low tide.
Recommended music: Tannadice (Robert Frew).
Suitable recording: Tannadice (Chris, Julie and Nick Dewhurst: Short and Sweet).
(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA 2021)
Erraid (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Earraid) is a tidal island about one square mile (two square kilometres) in size, located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It lies west of Mull, to which it is connected by a beach at low tide, and southeast of Iona.
The island experiences around 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) of rain and 1,350 hours of sunshine annually, making it one of the driest and sunniest places on Scotland's western seaboard.
Erraid is surrounded by numerous uninhabited small islets, the largest include two named Eilean Dubh, Eilean nam Muc, Eilean Chalmain, Eilean Ghomain, and Eilean na Seamair.
Privately owned, Erraid hosts an intentional community (Collective settlement, voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork) that is part of the Findhorn Foundation.
Erraid features in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Kidnapped", where the protagonist, David Balfour, is marooned after being shipwrecked on the nearby Torran Rocks. Stevenson's father, Thomas, was involved in constructing nearby lighthouses, with stones for Dhu Heartach quarried on Erraid. The young Stevenson visited the island several times, recounting one visit in his book "Memories and Portraits". He later used Erraid as the inspiration for the fictional island of Aros in his short story "The Merry Men".
A well-known anchorage called 'Tinker's Hole' is located on the western side of Erraid, comprising a deep but narrow channel between the island and the westernmost of the islets named Eilean Dubh.
Tinker's Hole, Ross Of Mull (Erraid)
Published in Erraid, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA.
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Erraid article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Intentional Community article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Rafa Esteve, Creative Commons Licence 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Erraid' page