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Scottish Country Dancing by Ruary Laidlaw
Last update - November 3rd 2026
Up dated the 396 Social Dances spreadsheet.
Embedded Files
Books & CDs
If you can't see the menu of books, CDs and Music MP3 files on the left, click on the three menu bars at the top left beside "Swampy" and the menu bar will appear from the left with clickable links to the pages described briefly below:-
Alphabetical List of Dances
This list takes you to a list of all the dances arranged alphabetically. You can download the original instructions for each dance from here.
Dancing Feet
Six dances for Beginners and Elementary Dancers. There is a CD with music to go with each dance arranged and played by "Peter Elmes and His Band".
One Step at a Time
These four dances help Beginners & Elementary dancers master the four basic steps. There is a CD with music to go with each dance arranged and played by "Peter Elmes and His Band".
The St. Abb's Collection
These four dances have basic formations for Elementary dancers
Weird & Wonderful
Two of these three dances have unusual music and one dance is weird!
Contact Ruary if you would like a CD
The Lochiel Collection
This is a collection of 12 dances that celebrate Lochiel Club members or were composed by them.
It also has a CD of music to go with each dance, all arranged by Peter Elmes and then played by "Peter Elmes and His Band".
The Bruce Fordyce Memorial Collection
This is a book of 17 dances composed by Bruce Fordyce of Seton's Ceilidh Band fame. He also wrote the music for most of the dances. The scores are included with each dance.
Six of the Best
These six recent dances are dances for more Mainstream to Advanced dancers
Three Teaching Resources
For a Year and a Day
A teacher's programme for teaching Beginners & Elementary dancers for a year! Steps and formation listed in sequence from 1 to 64. If you would like a copy contact Ruary - below.
Forever
This carries on the steps and formations from the previous book, but one level up for Mainstream (intermediate) dances. Steps and formations from 70 to 137. If you would like a copy contact Ruary - below.
Clapyerhands
These four dances are for school children who know nothing about dancing. The steps are all walking or plain skipping. The formations are all intuitive. There are MP3 files on this website,of music to go with each dance arranged and played by "Peter Elmes and His Band".
Biography
I was the tutor for about 27 years at the Lochiel Scottish Country Dancing Club in Hamilton, New Zealand from 1991 to 2018.
Over the years I gradually became more and more interested in teaching Beginners (people who have never danced before) and Elementary dancers (people who have completed the beginners' stage and want to go further).
The dances in the books listed on the left are mainly for Beginners and Elementary dancers, except for the last four, which include dances for all levels of ability.
Click on the link on the left to get the link to the book that you are interested in. This will take you to a page that will give you a list of dances in that book. You can then click on the dance you want and get the full instructions.
If you would like the book with a CD for:-
Dancing Feet,
One Step at a Time
Clapyerhands
The Lochiel Collection
...with the music for each of the dances arranged and played by Peter Elmes and his Band, send an email to Ruary Laidlaw (click on my name).
Acknowledgement
I owe a debt of gratitude to Bill Jacob & Maureen Jacob, who turned their house into a recording studio on several occasions so that Bill could record Peter Elmes and His Band playing the music for many of the dances in the books: Dancing Feet, One Step at a Time and The Lochiel Collection. Bill then created the CDs to go into the books. A job well done!
These music files are now available for download on this website. Just look on the Menu for "Peter Elmes Music" plus the book name. You can listen to the music first before you download it.
396 Social Dances for Scottish Dancers
Dancers creating programmes for Social Dance Evenings can use the spreadsheet below to create a programme that most dancers can do. Just click on the grey "Open Spreadsheet" square button at the top right of the spreadsheet.
Once you have opened the Spreadsheet you can use the tabs at the bottom to choose the format that best suits your needs. Type, Formations and Level are probably the most useful
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