Roaring Jack - Destitution Road lyrics

In the Year of the Sheep and the Burning Time They cut our young men in their prime The old-Scots way was a hanging crime For the Gaels of Caledonia There's a den for the fox, a hedge for the hare A nest in the tree for the birds of the air In a' Scotland there's no place there For the Gaels of Caledonia But there's no use getting frantic It's time to hump your load Across the wild Atlantic On the destitution road The bailiff came with the writ and a' And the gallant lads of the forty-twa They drove you out in the sleet and snow The Gaels of Caledonia When your house was burned and your crops as well You stood and wept in the blackened shell And the winter moor was a living hell For the Gaels of Caledonia The plague and the famine they dragged ye doon As you made your way to Glesga toon You'd heard of a ship that was sailing soon For the shores of Nova Scotia So you sold your gear, you paid your fare With your head held high though your heart was sair And you bid farewell for ever mair To the glens of Caledonia The land was cleared and the deal was made Now an English Lord in a tartan plaid Struts and stares as the memories fade Of the Gaels of Caledonia And he hunts the deer in the lonely glen That once was home to a thousand men And the wind on the moor sings a sad refrain For the Gaels of Caledonia