carolynf - Posted - 12/26/2025:  08:05:25

TOTW Tralee Gaol

I came across a medley of Tralee Gaol and Quarry Cross the other day from a CD on my back shelf called “A Common Thread,” by the group Extended Roots. I quickly became obsessed with both tunes, but focused on Tralee Gaol for learning on the banjo.

When I started looking for some notation for it, I realized it is a pretty popular Irish tune. It is a polka, in 2/4 timing, and goes by many different names. The Session website has lots of midi/notation versions of it, and a fair amount of discussion.

Other names it is known by are: As I Went Out Upon The Ice, Charles Og, Glen Cottage, Glen Cottage Polka 2, Glen Cottage Polka No.2, The Glin Cottage No. 2, The Green Cockade, The Haughs O’ Cromdale, The Haughs Of Cromdale, O’Neill’s March.

If you wanted to dive deeper into the same tune by a different name, O’Neill’s March and Haughs of Cromdale are highly represented. Here is The Haughs O’Cromdale on bagpipes, and here with lyrics.

It is a Scottish battle ballad from back in the day.

As I came in by Auchindoun,

A little wee bit frae the toun,

When to the Highlands I was bound,

To view the haughs of Cromdale,

I met a man in tartan trews,

I speir'd at him what was the news;

Quo' he the Highland army rues,

That e'er we came to Cromdale.

(Just in case you want to read them all, here.)

I’m pretty sure that the reason there isn’t a lot of history out there on “Tralee Gaol” is because it is rooted in an old tune and got repurposed to this particular name. There actually is a Tralee Gaol in Ireland. As far as that structure is concerned:

…According to the Report of Mr. Burke, Tralee Gaol was remarkable for three things — the wretched state of the building, the enormous expenditure, and the small number of prisoners…

A lot of the sheet music is in both A and E dorian. Obviously that puts my banjo nicely in A modal for the A dorian version.

I put a basic tab for it in the Hangout. And made an mp3. I put a Strum Machine piece together for any users out there.

Tralee Gaol

Tralee Gaol

dbrooks - Posted - 12/26/2025:  09:24:19

What a fine tune and a fine addition to the TOTW collection.  THank you.

David

ndlxs - Posted - 12/28/2025:  04:23:53

"Haughs of Cromdale" is an ancestor of "Squirrel Hunters": which itself has not been a Banjo Hangout tune of the week.  In my hearing, Haughs/Squirrel Hunters and another called Shaking Down the Acorns are all related. 

 

carolynf - Posted - 12/28/2025:  07:39:12

I'm not one to automatically pick up whenever tunes are the same or similar by another name unless I really pay attention. I'll go and look at those. Is the whole tune(s) that way, or just sections?

I do know that Squirrel Hunters is about identical to Hail Against the Barn Door. 

Edited by - carolynf on 12/28/2025 07:40:28

JanetB - Posted - 12/28/2025:  16:53:27

Your tunes are most welcome, Carolyn, and your playing and tab so spot on that I went to the cello banjo to try something different. The tuning ended up as eGDGA to play along with you, like a double C tuning but down several steps and a raised 5th string. 



One of the alternate titles was a past Tune of the Week, but I hear a different melody: O'Neill's March. In a video posted on Facebook played in a group called Gaelic Bagpipes WA, O'Neill's March is the same as Tralee Gaol, but someone commented: "It's 'The Haughs of Cromdale.' It gets called O'Neill's March because Ó Riada paired it with that tune in the famous concert and the recording of it, 'Ó Riada sa Gaiety.'" It's the first tune in this 42 minute concert video: Ó Riada sa Gaiety and in a tracklist it's indeed called Marcshlua Uí Néll, which must mean O'Neill's March in Gaelic, therefore perhaps an error in title, as suggested by the Facebook commenter.

 The Squirrel Hunters was covered in 2009 and Hail Against the Barn Door in 2010.  They're both due for revisiting, if anyone's willing to cover them for a TOTW.  

Edited by - JanetB on 12/28/2025 16:54:04

Tralee Gaol (CH) tab for cello banjo

Tralee Gaol (CB)