Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Mill Of Tifty

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE MILL OF TIFTY (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Barry Priddey Green Lady Book

1- 8 1s ½ turn RH moving down in centre (2s step up). 1s drop hands, set and cross LH, dance out of sides and cast Left (1M round 3M, 1L round 2L) and pass LSh to face 2nd corners
9-16 1s dance diagonal reel of 4 with 2nd corners while 1st corners dance track of diagonal reel of 4 (2s+3s brief LH across in centre). 1s pass LSh to face 1st corners
17-24 1s repeat diagonal reels of 4 with 1st corners while 2nd corners dance track of diagonal reel of 4 (2s+3s brief LH across in centre). 1s pass LSh to face out in 2nd place own side
25-32 Reels of 3 across (1M+3s, 1L+2s) 1M+3M and 1L+2L pass LSh to start and corners pass partner RSh in centre. 1s end 2nd place own side. 213

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


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Information

The Mill Of Tifty is an old mill in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, just North East of Fyvie Castle.

The title of this dance, The Mill Of Tifty, relates to Mill of Tifty's Annie - Song (or Old Scottish Ballad Of Andrew Lammie) written by an anonymous Scottish poet sometime between 1870 and 1885.

This ballad is about a lady called Agnes Smith who died in 1678 of a broken heart after she was prevented from seeing her lover, a man called Andrew Lammie, the trumpeter of Fyvie castle.

At Mill of Tifty lived a man,
In the neighbourhood of Fyvie-
He had a lovely daughter fair
Was called bonnie Annie.

It may be noteworthy that this dance is from "The Green Lady Book" by Barry Priddey and Fyvie castle is said to be haunted by many ghosts, but the head ghost is called "The Green Lady".

Many ghosts go by the name of The Green Lady, but the Fyvie castle Green Lady was once known as Lilias Drummond, married to Alexander Seton. It is said that her husband held her captive in "The Chartered Room" to punish her for failing to provide a son and heir, where she died in 1601. Alexander Seton went on to remarry, and on the night of his wedding, ghostly screams were heard and scratching from outside the window of their marital bedchamber. In the morning they looked outside the window and found "D. LILLIAS DRUMMOND" scratched into the stone windowsill, over fifty feet above the ground, upside down, in letters three inches high, which can still be seen to this day.

Mill Of Tifty's Annie Song - Information Video

The Mill Of Tifty Ballad.
First Stanzas Of Andrew Lammie, Mill Of Tifty's Annie, From Glen Collection Of Printed Music, Scottish Ballads, Combination Of Pages 137 and 138, c. 1829


Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Old Scottish Ballad Of Andrew Lammie article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright (cropped) https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/87739906 under this Creative Commons Licence 4.0.
Image copyright (cropped) https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/87739918 under this Creative Commons Licence 4.0.

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