Read the story THE LONG ROAD TO KINLOCHLEVEN

THE LOW ROAD TO KINLOCHLEVEN

White blankets slope down to the shore.
It’s morning, water glitters through the trees.
Winter will stay whitening the day.
From the isles to the ridge of Binnein Mòr.

Darkness now lifting, goldeneyes drifting,
Above the narrows thunder’s rumbled through the night
Water is falling, mountains are calling.
It’s the low road to Kinlochleven.

I‘ll find a house with empty rooms.
Light a fire and warm its heart out of the gloom.
Now I’m alive and I will drive,
Drive the low road to Kinlochleven.

Songs will now no longer feel the same,
No more room for torment fear and shame.
From Blackwater to the bridge they all call me by my name.

There was a goddess under my feet.
They stole her wooden body from the peat .
I‘ll carve her name on every tree.
On the low road to Kinlochleven

Abide with me, journey with me.
Let the goddess fill the glen with mystery.
We’ll write the story of life and glory
On the low road to Kinlochleven.

This is the journey of a woman arriving in Kinlochleven on a winter day via the Low Road on the North side of Loch Leven. She passes the site where the 2,600 year old Goddess of Ballachulish was found in the 19th century and feels the mystery of the glen becoming part of her own journey. The song was first performed at a concert in Kinlochleven and recorded shortly after. The story behind the song appeared in a book published by the National Theatre of Scotland and later in Bella Caledonia. During the recording the idea of a full album celebrating the glen of Loch Leven and its people took shape. The Low Road to Kinlochleven is the song that set the tone and the direction of the whole album keeping hope at the centre of the project.