As far as I know, this song appeared on the scene around 1965. The late Norman Buchan had just been elected to Parliament the previous year and his job as an English teacher at Rutherglen Academy (on the outskirts of Glasgow) had been taken by Ian Davison, who also took on Norman's Ballads Club of which I had been a member from 1957 until leaving school in 1962.
After leaving school I joined a group with Ian, his wife-to-be Karine, John Craig and Ian Young -- the latter two also Ballads Club FPs like me. We sang a lot of Weavers songs, traditional Scottish material, kids' songs and songs by current writers like Matt McGinn and Adam McNaughtan. (We eventually recorded a 45rpm disc with Adam's Jeely Piece Song on the A side and I'm fairly sure The Sands o' the Shore was the B side.)
We had all brought songs to the group, and Ian brought in The Sands o' the Shore which a pupil called Kathleen (sorry I've forgotten her surname) had sung at the Club: at the time Ian could find no source for it and all Kathleen could provide was that she got it from her grannie!

Mary Stewart was also a member of the Ballads Club and got the song there, took it to Ayshire when she moved there after leaving school and sang it often at Kilmarnock Folk Club, which is where Heather Heywood got it. And I taught it to Gillian Frame when she was a student on the Scottish Music BA course at the (then) Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

It's a great wee song, full of admirable sentiments and attitude.