Can anybody help me find out whether this song is Scottish or not? I have learned it from the singing of Lizzie Higgins and was intending to sing it in the competition at the TMSA Keith Festival. However, someone has told me that it is possibly Irish so of course it would not be allowed!

I have been trawling the internet for a couple of weeks and come up with nothing much except a reference to it maybe being a bothy ballad.

Anyway, the lyrics are below. Any help would be most appreciated.

LOVELY MOLLY
(from Jeannie Robertson?)

I once was a ploughboy but a soldier I'm now
I hae courted wi' Lovely Molly as I followed the plough
I hae courted wi' Lovely Molly at the age of sixteen
But now I must leave her and serve James, my King.

O Molly, Lovely Molly, despite all your charms
There is many's a night you hae laid in my arms
But if ever I return again it will be in the Spring
Where the mavis and the turtle doves and the nightingales sing

You may go to the market you may go to the fair
You may go to church on Sunday and meet your new love there
But if anybody loves you half as much as I do
Then I won't stop your marriage Farewell love, adieu

O Molly, Lovely Molly, despite all your charms
There is many's a night you hae laid in my arms
But if ever I return again it will be in the Spring
Where the mavis and the turtle doves and the nightingales sing