My heart's in The Highlands

My heart's in The Highlands
My heart is not here
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go

When I was just 10 years old, I was sent away from my home in the Scottish Highlands to a convent boarding school south of London.

I had learnt that poem by Robbie Burns at the little village school, where I had been up until then, and I loved it. It expressed everything I felt about being so far away from my beloved home
During that first term I was honoured (or so I thought) to be asked to recite the poem in front of the whole school. My recital was given an enthusiastic reception and I felt great pride. It was only a while later, I discovered that the whole thing had been a set up, to hear me talking in my "odd" Scottish accent.

But where are The Highlands?
Scotland has recently been divided into regions by some bureucrat. He has delineated an area which is called Highland and another called Grampian (Aberdeen-shire) and another called Tayside etc etc

We Highlanders know that The Highlands are all that land north of and including the Grampian Mountains and that everywhere else is The Lowlands. Those of us from The Highlands  are Highlanders and all the rest are Lowlanders and I wont repeat here the adjective we used to describe lowlanders at my primary school.
Orkney and Shetland are not in the Highlands.

So Mr Salmond - I think we need something different to what you suggest.
If you insist on separating Scotland from England,
then us Highlanders - with our whisky - want to be separate from you lowlanders
 and
Those Vikings up in Orkney and Shetland - with all the oil and fishing - want to to be separate too.
So
What does that leave you Mr Salmond and your lowlanders?
You can keep all your welfare  problems left over from de-industrialisation

so
Farewell to The Highlands, farewell to the North
The birth place of valour, the country of worth
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove
The hills of the Highlands forever I love

Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow
Farewell to the straths and green glens below
Farewell to the forest and green hanging woods
Farewell to the torrents and loud pouring floods

My heart's in The Highlands
My heart is not here
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go