The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2085   Message #3178547
Posted By: Jack Campin
29-Jun-11 - 03:34 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Katie Bairdie/Katie Beardie/Kitty Beardie
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katie Bairdie / Katie Beardie
The tune is in the Skene Manuscript of 1625 (tunes for the mandour, a sort of ukulele), under the present name, and the words are referred to in a witch trial record of a few decades earlier. The pipes don't come into it.

I hadn't thought of the connection with "London Bridge is Falling Down". Anybody know how old that is?