A song from a recent concert of Irish and Scottish songs at South Yarra Senior Centre in Fawkner Park.

Andy Stewart wrote these lyrics to a well-known traditional Scottish bagpipe tune called "The Green Hills of Tyrol", which was actually derived from an Alpine folk melody used by Rossini in his 1829 opera William Tell.

The song is about a dying Scottish soldier, wishing to return to the hills of his homeland rather than die in Tyrol where he has been sent to fight in a foreign war.

Stewart's recording of the song reached no. 1 in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, spent 36 weeks in the UK Singles Chart in 1961 and was in the top 50 in the USA for over a year.

Lyrics and chords:
D
There was a soldier, a Scottish soldier,
.......... A ................................................... D
Who wandered far away and soldiered far away.

There was none bolder, with good broad shoulder,
.......................... A ...................... A7 ............. D
He’s fought in many a fray, and fought and won.

He’d seen the glory, he told the story,
Of battles glorious and deeds victorious.
But now he’s sighing, his heart is crying,
To leave those green hills of Tyrol.

............................ G ......................... D
Because those green hills are not highland hills,
........... A ................................... D
Or the island hills, they’re not my land’s hills.
..................... G ............................ D
And fair as these green foreign hills may be,
................. A .............. A7.. D
They are not the hills of home.

And now this soldier, this Scottish soldier,
Who’d wandered far away, and soldiered far away,
Sees leaves are falling, and death is calling,
And he will fade away in that far land.

He called his piper, his trusty piper,
And bade him sound a lay, a pibroch sad to play,
Upon a hillside, but Scottish hillside,
Not on those green hills of Tyrol.

And so this soldier, this Scottish soldier,
Will wander far no more, and soldier far no more,
And on a hillside, a Scottish hillside,
You’ll see a piper play his soldier home!

He’s seen the glory, he’s told his story
Of battles glorious, and deeds victorious.
The bugles cease now, he is at peace now,
Far from those green hills of Tyrol.