Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening – High Way to Hermitage

From the album 'Cloud Horizons'. Filming by Ken Moffatt on location in the Borders. Kathryn was commissioned to write this by the Johnnie Armstrong Gallery and Borderlands Museum to accompany an exhibition about Mary Queen of Scots. The tune commemorates Mary's famous journey over 'the Queen's Mire' from Jedburgh to Hermitage castle to visit the wounded James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell in October 1566. Apparently on the way back to Jedburgh Mary's horse got stuck in the mire and threw her off into the heather. The musicians: Kathryn Tickell – Northumbrian pipes; Amy Thatcher – accordion, synth; Kieran Szifris – octave mandolin; Joe Truswell – drums; Stef Conner - vocals.