Table of Contents: All Bedtime Stories
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Based on the Nursery Rhyme The Skye Boat Song
Listen to the Bedtime Story Bonnie Prince Charlie, based around our arrangement of the Nursery Rhyme The Skye Boat Song. Here you can listen to excerpts of all stories (narrated by Peter Bradbury). You can read along with every story online on our website or you can download all story texts and soundtracks individually (MP3 + PDF). In addition, all 20 stories are available together as an illustrated eBook with audio included (our full package download).
All Bedtime Stories (based on Nursery Rhymes)
Good Night Story based on The Skye Boat Song
(Story 6 of 20)
The Skye Boat Song
Bonnie Prince Charlie
This is a very old story about a famous boat journey.
Flora MacDonald was a brave young girl who lived in Scotland many years ago and she was very fond of a famous Prince whose name was Charles. Charles was a handsome Prince, so handsome that his friends called him ‘bonnie’.
But Bonnie Prince Charlie was not a very happy Prince. He thought that he should be the King of Scotland but Scotland already had a king called George. Bonnie Prince Charlie decided to do something about it, so he borrowed a ship from his friends in France and set sail to Scotland.
When he arrived there was singing and dancing and celebrating because many of the people of Scotland were very pleased to see him.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and his friends in Scotland had a plan, they would fight a battle with King George’s soldiers and the winner would be the King of Scotland. Everyone got ready for this great battle. Swords and axes were sharpened shields were made, gunpowder was prepared and horses were given new shoes.
The day of the battle arrived, horses charged, cannons roared, soldiers shouted, swords clanged on sword and axes bashed into shields. Bonnie Prince Charlie and his friends fought very bravely but they could not beat the soldiers and friends of King George. Bonnie Prince Charlie had to run for his life while George’s soldiers hunted for him.
Now Flora MacDonald had an idea to help the Prince. She dressed him in women’s clothes and told everyone that he was her maid. It was a wonderful disguise. The soldiers were getting closer and closer to Bonnie Prince Charlie and they offered a reward of 30,000 pounds to anyone who would show them where the Prince was hiding. Many people in the Highlands of Scotland saw him, but they were good friends of the Prince and so none of them gave him away to the soldiers for the reward.
All music taken from
The Nursery Rhyme Collection
Volumes 1 - 8
Flora McDonald decided that it was time for the Prince to sail away from Scotland. So along with some friends she found a boat and helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the Scottish Isle of Skye and then back to France.
This is a very famous story and this tune tells of that famous boat journey.
Song:
Speed, bonnie boat
Like a bird on the wing
Onward! the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar
Thunderclouds rend the air
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore
Follow they will not dare
Speed, bonnie boat
Like a bird on the wing
Onward! the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye
Though the waves leap
Soft shall ye sleep
Ocean’s a royal bed
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head
© 2015, written by Trevor Dobson
