[5] Others say that Alauna was a Celtic river goddess, also found in Brittany;[6] Alaunus was a Gaulish god of medicine and prophesy.

The other, more familiar, English ballad begins "On the banks of Allan Water" and relates the death of a miller's daughter whose soldier lover proves untrue.

This version, popularised by C. E. Horn in his comic opera, Rich and Poor (1812), is sung by Bathsheba Everdene at the sheepshearing supper in Thomas Hardy's novel Far From The Madding Crowd (1874).

The major tributaries, the Muckle Burn and River Knaik, are mainly in hilly sheep farming terrain and no significant industrial use was made of them.

The area is now occupied by housing but many traces of the mill lades can still be seen, and the flow of water over the weirs remains impressive.