"The Skye Boat Song" is a Scottish folk song, which can be played as a waltz, recalling the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) from Uist to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The song tells how Bonnie Prince Charlie, disguised as a serving maid, escaped in a small boat after the defeat of his Jacobite rising of 1745, with the aid of Flora MacDonald. The song is a traditional expression of Jacobitism and its story has also entered Scotland as a national legend.
The song has been recorded by such notables as Roger Whitaker, Julian Lloyd Webber, and Rod Stewart. Bear McCreary adapted the song as the opening titles of the 2014 Outlander TV series, sung by Raya Yarbrough, changing the text of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Sing Me a Song of a Lad That Is Gone to fit the story. ¹
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Loud the winds howl loud the waves roar
Thunderclaps rend the air
Baffled our foes stand by the shore
Follow they will not dare
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Many's the lad fought on that day
Well the claymore could wield
When the night came silently lay
Dead in Culloden's field
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Though the waves leap soft shall ye sleep
Ocean's a royal bed
Rock'd in the deep Flora will keep
Watch o'er your weary head
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye
Burned are our homes exile and death
Scattered the loyal men
Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye ²
Sources: ¹ Wikipedia; ² Songfacts