The source singer, Michael C Dean, said that his Irish immigrant mother used to sing the song to him as a lullaby." That could speak for the Irish origin, although it's odd that Irish would be singing about Edinburgh, unless they were Scots-Irish.

She'll have learned it from a book or broadside. It was one of the most-printed songs of the 19th century. Most of the sources for it are English and my guess is it was written in London. There is nothing Scots about the language in any version I know. Early anthologizers of Scots songs didn't seem to know of its existence.


The one that I don't think is on this thread but IS in the DT is "The Star o the Bar"

"The one"? Do you realize how many there are?

"Star of the Bar" is also on my website long with a couple of hundred others.