Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Bonny Ythanside (Roud No. 3783) - Sung by Daisy Chapman at the Aberdeen Folk Festival Sunday afternoon traditional concert, October 6, 1968. Recorded by Peter Shepheard. From "Daisy Chapman - Ythanside" (2000) MTCD308 Musical Traditions.
The second performance was recorded by Hamish Henderson and Arthur Argo in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, in August 1968. Daisy Chapman was born and brought up in New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Liner Notes:
This lovely song was sung by Daisy Chapman at the Aberdeen Folk Festival Sunday afternoon traditional concert in October 1968 shortly after returning from her successful first appearance at the Blairgowrie Festival in August. This was one of Daisy's favourite songs and it was clearly also very popular in the north east at the turn of the century, since there are fourteen versions in the Greig-Duncan Collection and a total of 21 in Roud—all from Scotland. Gavin Greig considered the song to be fairly recent when he first commented on it in his retiring presidential address to the Buchan Field Club in December 1905. However, Daisy's tune is clearly old, and is a beautiful pentatonic melody lacking both the 3rd and 6th of the scale and so relates to the three flattened 7th modes, the myxolydian, dorian and aeolian, and the melody is similar to several of those in the Greig Duncan Collection.
Song transcription:
As I gaed in be Ythanside,
Where gently flows the rollin tide,
A bonnie lass passed by my side,
Her looks to me, an smiled.
Oh but she was a beauty bricht,
That iver trod the braes o' Gight,
I could hae spent a leelang nicht
Wi her on Ythanside.
I turned my back on Fyvie's bells,
An my poor heart gave mony a knell,
An I spiered the wey be Saint John's wells,
An hame be Ythanside.
The maid replied without delay,
She turned tae me an this did say,
“I only go two miles that way,
Young man, I'll tell ye plain.”
She took me 'til her father's hame,
Sae bashfully as we gaed ben,
The auldwife, she took oot a seat,
An bad ma 'til sit doun.
I sat doon the auld folks tae please,
They treated me wi breid an cheese,
The bairnies aa aroon ma knees,
It wis a blythesome sicht.
Nine o'clock began tae strick,
An I bad them aa a blythe sweet nicht,
An I spiered the wey be Mains o' Gight,
An hame be Ythanside.
She showed me til the barn door,
Oh, but oor twa herts were sore;
We parted there to meet no more,
Wi her on Ythanside.
When he came back it was into Spring,
An on her finger he placed a ring,
An frae her hame he haes her taen,
On bonnie Ythanside.
Noo this couple's mairried noo,
They've as muckle grund's would keep a coo,
An they hae bairnies—quite a few,
An dwell on Ythanside.
Bonny Ythanside (Roud No. 3783) - Sung by Daisy Chapman at the Aberdeen Folk Festival Sunday afternoon traditional concert, October 6, 1968. Recorded by Peter Shepheard. From "Daisy Chapman - Ythanside" (2000) MTCD308 Musical Traditions.
The second performance was recorded by Hamish Henderson and Arthur Argo in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, in August 1968. Daisy Chapman was born and brought up in New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Liner Notes:
This lovely song was sung by Daisy Chapman at the Aberdeen Folk Festival Sunday afternoon traditional concert in October 1968 shortly after returning from her successful first appearance at the Blairgowrie Festival in August. This was one of Daisy's favourite songs and it was clearly also very popular in the north east at the turn of the century, since there are fourteen versions in the Greig-Duncan Collection and a total of 21 in Roud—all from Scotland. Gavin Greig considered the song to be fairly recent when he first commented on it in his retiring presidential address to the Buchan Field Club in December 1905. However, Daisy's tune is clearly old, and is a beautiful pentatonic melody lacking both the 3rd and 6th of the scale and so relates to the three flattened 7th modes, the myxolydian, dorian and aeolian, and the melody is similar to several of those in the Greig Duncan Collection.
Song transcription:
As I gaed in be Ythanside,
Where gently flows the rollin tide,
A bonnie lass passed by my side,
Her looks to me, an smiled.
Oh but she was a beauty bricht,
That iver trod the braes o' Gight,
I could hae spent a leelang nicht
Wi her on Ythanside.
I turned my back on Fyvie's bells,
An my poor heart gave mony a knell,
An I spiered the wey be Saint John's wells,
An hame be Ythanside.
The maid replied without delay,
She turned tae me an this did say,
“I only go two miles that way,
Young man, I'll tell ye plain.”
She took me 'til her father's hame,
Sae bashfully as we gaed ben,
The auldwife, she took oot a seat,
An bad ma 'til sit doun.
I sat doon the auld folks tae please,
They treated me wi breid an cheese,
The bairnies aa aroon ma knees,
It wis a blythesome sicht.
Nine o'clock began tae strick,
An I bad them aa a blythe sweet nicht,
An I spiered the wey be Mains o' Gight,
An hame be Ythanside.
She showed me til the barn door,
Oh, but oor twa herts were sore;
We parted there to meet no more,
Wi her on Ythanside.
When he came back it was into Spring,
An on her finger he placed a ring,
An frae her hame he haes her taen,
On bonnie Ythanside.
Noo this couple's mairried noo,
They've as muckle grund's would keep a coo,
An they hae bairnies—quite a few,
An dwell on Ythanside.
