Martlets Reel
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Martlets Reel A forty bar Jig for three couples in a longwise set, devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 1.1- 4 First and second couples dance half rights and lefts.
5-10 First and third couples dance right hands across in a wheel one and a quarter times round to finish with first couple on the ladies' side of the set and third couple on the men's side.
11-14 All three couples dance six hands round to the left in a circle.
15-26 All three couples dance a reel of six: to commence, the ladies cast clockwise to follow their partners, whilst the men dance left hands across in a wheel half way to the position occupied by the lady immediately opposite. Thus first man dances to follow second lady, second man to follow third lady and third man to follow first lady. This takes two bars, then the men cast, whilst the ladies dance left hands across on the next two bars, and so on.
27-30 Six hands round to the right to finish with third couple back in their original places, first couple on the ladies' side and second couple on the men's side.
31-36 First and second couples dance left hands across in a wheel one and a quarter times round to finish with second couple in their original places and first couple at the top on the opposite sides.
37-40 First couple cross over, giving right hand, and cast off into second place on own side.
Repeat with a new top couple.
(Dance crib reproduced from The Whetherly Book of Scottish Country Dances, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Published in The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 1, by John W Mitchell, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell. Instructions reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0).
Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Martlets Reel' page