An Ode: Goodbye Tae Lucky Scaup
Poetry
by Jean Heggie
12 February 1979
When I was just a lassie
Wi’ a knapsack on my Back,
We set oot frae the first point
Tae go tae Lucky Scaup
We waited till the tide went oot
And on a lovely summer Day,
Nae stockings, just a pair o’ shane,
Tae walk across the Tay
We a’ went aff in happy mood,
Singing a song in turn,
Running across in oor bare feet,
Tae cross the “Cleekie Burn”
We landed safe on Lucky Scaup,
Nae happier could we be,
For, looking roond about us
There was miles and miles o’Sea
We gethered shells and stanes and Wulks,
Dug oor bare feet in the Sand,
And lookin’ back across those years,
Ah! Life was simply Grand
The tide was startin’ tae come in,
It was then we made oor Way,
A day well spent on Lucky Scaup,
On the Bonnie Banks o’ Tay
So it’s Goodbye tae Guid Auld Lucky Scaup,
It seems ye’ve had yer Day,
You’ll be sadly missed by lots o’ us,
When we look across your Way
For each time we look across the Tay,
There will be an aufy Gap,
The view just winna by the same,
Withoot the Lucky Scaup.