A rollicking tribute to the Scottish warrior Rob Roy, this concert overture was composed in Nice and Rome, around the same time Berlioz was writing the "Scène aux champs" for his Symphonie fantastique. The overture has much more in common, though, with his later Harold en Italie, sharing several themes with the larger work.

The sonata form overture opens with a jig-like Scottish tune in the horns that is soon echoed by the rest of the orchestra. The lower strings and bassoon introduce a vigorous, slightly militant melody that is answered by a more playful passage for violins and woodwinds. A great deal of fragmentary Scottish folk-like material is passed around, and eventually the English horn and harp present the long, lyrical theme that would later represent the hero of Harold en Italie; this is one of the overture's most extended passages. All the themes then undergo a rollicking development and finale. The hostile reaction of the audience at the Parisian premiere led Berlioz to destroy the score (though not without setting a duplicate aside), thus explaining why this piece, unlike most of his other well-known compositions of the period, lacks an opus number.

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