Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
The Back o' Benachie / Up Among the Heather (Roud No. 1506) / The Fish Gutters' Song / Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies (Roud No. 12504) / Handsome Polly-O / Pretty Peggy-O / Molly-O / Bonnie Barbara-O / Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie-O / Fennario / Pretty Peggy of Derby (Roud No. 545) - Sung by sisters Jane and Elizabeth Stewart of the Travelling Stewarts of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Learned from their aunt Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus. Recorded by Arthur Argo in 1959.
00:00:00 Up Among the Heather
00:02:14 The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie Medley
Note by Kevin W.:
Elizabeth and Jane Stewart were sisters from the Travelling Stewart Family of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Elizabeth's mother Jean and her aunt Lucy Stewart also sang this song which is known as "The Back o' Benachie / Up Among the Heather" (Roud 1506).
This is the recording that inspired Ewan MacColl to write the song "The Fish Gutters' Song / Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies" (Roud 12504) for the Radio Ballads series.
Note on Up Among the Heather:
This relatively little-known local song, set on the slopes of Bennachie near Inverurie, is a light-hearted account of courtship and mishap. Found almost exclusively in Scottish Traveller communities, it has parallels with the more ribald The Cuckoo's Nest.
Note on The Fisher Lassies (written by Ewan MacColl for the Radio Ballads):
The Fisher Lassies will be far more familiar to listeners than almost any other song in Elizabeth’s repertoire. In 1960, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, along with Charles Parker, were preparing a “radio ballad”, a montage of interviews, ambient sound of working life, music and new songs, on the life of English and Scottish fisher-folk: Singing the Fishing. Arthur Argo, grandson of Gavin Greig, sent the team a tape of Elizabeth and her sister Jane singing Up Among the Heather, with piano, jazzed-up to quickstep time. Peggy Seeger recalls,
I remember those two aligned voices and the gutsy piano. We were dancing around listening to it; it was so bouncy and full of life.
The resulting tune was used by MacColl for the now classic Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies, a song now usually assumed to be traditional and which perfectly encapsulates the hard graft of the gutting quines. Peggy Seeger:
When the sisters came down to record on Singing the Fishing, I believe it was the first time they had been on a train. Ewan and I went to meet them at Snow Hill Station and they were full of it, absolutely thrilled to be coming down south, to be recording, to sing on the radio ballad. They were a joy to work with. Everything was new and exciting. And they did such a good job. (30/6/2004).
Song transcription:
Chorus (after each verse):
It’s up among the heather on the hill o Bennachie
Twas there I met a bonnie lassie kilted tae the knee
When a bumbee stung me richt below the knee
And we baith gaed haem a-murnin fae the hill o Bennachie.
Said I tae my friends, Whaur are ye gaun tae spend the day?
Oh I’m gaun tae spend the day on the hill o Bennachie
Whaur the lads and the lassies they aa sit sae free
Amongst the bloomin heather on the hill o Bennachie.
As I wis a-walkin on the hill o Bennachie
Twas there I sat a bonnie lassie sitting on ma knee
I took her and whurled her and aye she said tae me,
O Jock we’ll ging a-wanderin on the hill o Bennachie.
Said I tae my lassie, Will you tak my advice?
Never let a sodger laddie kiss ye mair than twice
For aa the time he’s kissin ye he’s makin up a plan
For tae hae anither rattle at yer aul tin can.
The Fish Gutters’ Song in The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook:
Come a’ ye fisher lassies, ay, it’s come awa’ wi’ me,
Fae Cairnbulg and Gamrie and fae Inverallochie;
Fae Buckie and fae Aberdeen an’ a’ the country roond,
We’re awa’ tae gut the herrin’, we’re awa’ tae Yarmouth Toon.
Rise up in the morning wi’ your bundles in your hand,
Be at the station early or you’ll surely hae to stand;
Tak’ plenty to eat and a kettle for your tea,
Or you’ll mebbe die of hunger on the wa’ to Yarmouth quay.
The journey it’s a lang yen and it tak’s a day or twa,
And when you reach your lodgin’s sure it’s soond asleep you fall;
But ye rise at five wi’ the sleep still in your e’e,
You’re awa’ tae find the gutting yards alang the Yarmouth quay.
It’s early in the morning and it’s late into the nicht,
Your hands a’ cut and chappit and they look an unco’ sicht;
And you greet like a wean when you put them in the bree
And you wish you were a thoosand mile awa’ frae Yarmouth quay.
There’s coopers there and curers there and buyers, canny chiels,
And lassies at the pickling and others at the creels.
And you’ll wish the fish had been a’ left in the sea
By the time you finish gutting herring on the Yarmouth quay.
We’ve gutted fish in Lerwick and in Stornoway and Shields;
Warked along the Humber ’mongst the barrels and the creels;
Whitby, Grimsby, we’ve traivelled up and doon,
But the place to see the herrin’ is the quay at Yarmouth Toon.
The Back o' Benachie / Up Among the Heather (Roud No. 1506) / The Fish Gutters' Song / Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies (Roud No. 12504) / Handsome Polly-O / Pretty Peggy-O / Molly-O / Bonnie Barbara-O / Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie-O / Fennario / Pretty Peggy of Derby (Roud No. 545) - Sung by sisters Jane and Elizabeth Stewart of the Travelling Stewarts of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Learned from their aunt Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus. Recorded by Arthur Argo in 1959.
00:00:00 Up Among the Heather
00:02:14 The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie Medley
Note by Kevin W.:
Elizabeth and Jane Stewart were sisters from the Travelling Stewart Family of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Elizabeth's mother Jean and her aunt Lucy Stewart also sang this song which is known as "The Back o' Benachie / Up Among the Heather" (Roud 1506).
This is the recording that inspired Ewan MacColl to write the song "The Fish Gutters' Song / Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies" (Roud 12504) for the Radio Ballads series.
Note on Up Among the Heather:
This relatively little-known local song, set on the slopes of Bennachie near Inverurie, is a light-hearted account of courtship and mishap. Found almost exclusively in Scottish Traveller communities, it has parallels with the more ribald The Cuckoo's Nest.
Note on The Fisher Lassies (written by Ewan MacColl for the Radio Ballads):
The Fisher Lassies will be far more familiar to listeners than almost any other song in Elizabeth’s repertoire. In 1960, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, along with Charles Parker, were preparing a “radio ballad”, a montage of interviews, ambient sound of working life, music and new songs, on the life of English and Scottish fisher-folk: Singing the Fishing. Arthur Argo, grandson of Gavin Greig, sent the team a tape of Elizabeth and her sister Jane singing Up Among the Heather, with piano, jazzed-up to quickstep time. Peggy Seeger recalls,
I remember those two aligned voices and the gutsy piano. We were dancing around listening to it; it was so bouncy and full of life.
The resulting tune was used by MacColl for the now classic Come A' Ye Fisher Lassies, a song now usually assumed to be traditional and which perfectly encapsulates the hard graft of the gutting quines. Peggy Seeger:
When the sisters came down to record on Singing the Fishing, I believe it was the first time they had been on a train. Ewan and I went to meet them at Snow Hill Station and they were full of it, absolutely thrilled to be coming down south, to be recording, to sing on the radio ballad. They were a joy to work with. Everything was new and exciting. And they did such a good job. (30/6/2004).
Song transcription:
Chorus (after each verse):
It’s up among the heather on the hill o Bennachie
Twas there I met a bonnie lassie kilted tae the knee
When a bumbee stung me richt below the knee
And we baith gaed haem a-murnin fae the hill o Bennachie.
Said I tae my friends, Whaur are ye gaun tae spend the day?
Oh I’m gaun tae spend the day on the hill o Bennachie
Whaur the lads and the lassies they aa sit sae free
Amongst the bloomin heather on the hill o Bennachie.
As I wis a-walkin on the hill o Bennachie
Twas there I sat a bonnie lassie sitting on ma knee
I took her and whurled her and aye she said tae me,
O Jock we’ll ging a-wanderin on the hill o Bennachie.
Said I tae my lassie, Will you tak my advice?
Never let a sodger laddie kiss ye mair than twice
For aa the time he’s kissin ye he’s makin up a plan
For tae hae anither rattle at yer aul tin can.
The Fish Gutters’ Song in The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook:
Come a’ ye fisher lassies, ay, it’s come awa’ wi’ me,
Fae Cairnbulg and Gamrie and fae Inverallochie;
Fae Buckie and fae Aberdeen an’ a’ the country roond,
We’re awa’ tae gut the herrin’, we’re awa’ tae Yarmouth Toon.
Rise up in the morning wi’ your bundles in your hand,
Be at the station early or you’ll surely hae to stand;
Tak’ plenty to eat and a kettle for your tea,
Or you’ll mebbe die of hunger on the wa’ to Yarmouth quay.
The journey it’s a lang yen and it tak’s a day or twa,
And when you reach your lodgin’s sure it’s soond asleep you fall;
But ye rise at five wi’ the sleep still in your e’e,
You’re awa’ tae find the gutting yards alang the Yarmouth quay.
It’s early in the morning and it’s late into the nicht,
Your hands a’ cut and chappit and they look an unco’ sicht;
And you greet like a wean when you put them in the bree
And you wish you were a thoosand mile awa’ frae Yarmouth quay.
There’s coopers there and curers there and buyers, canny chiels,
And lassies at the pickling and others at the creels.
And you’ll wish the fish had been a’ left in the sea
By the time you finish gutting herring on the Yarmouth quay.
We’ve gutted fish in Lerwick and in Stornoway and Shields;
Warked along the Humber ’mongst the barrels and the creels;
Whitby, Grimsby, we’ve traivelled up and doon,
But the place to see the herrin’ is the quay at Yarmouth Toon.
