I grew up near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, being an Aberdeenshire boy myself, we used to listen to, and sing, the songs of the North-East of Scotland.

My dad had a song book called "The Cornkisters" now sadly lost, which contained many songs of the North-East including

"The Barnyards of Delgaty (pron. Delgettee),

"A pair o' nicky tams" which were farm workers trousers, each leg tied tight just beneath the knees by string, to stop field mice from climbing up your legs (and affectionately known as "shit catchers")

"The Road to Dundee" a beautiful ballad,

"The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" which translated into English, means the cleaning of George's cowshed,

"McGintie's Meal and Ale" a story of a party that went a little out of hand, and of course,

"Turra Mairket" which is a song about Turriff Market, where the farmers sold their produce.

"The Bonny Lass o'Fyvie" the story of a beautiful girl who rejected the advances of a Capt of the Irish Dragoons who had fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her. He died of a broken heart. Sad really.

The problems we have with this song, as with the others, is that it is typically written in the Doric, which is the dialect of the North East of Scotland, and because many people have taken these songs around the world, many of the words have lost their meaning and have been substituted by guess words.

Even the Irish band, the Corries, called the song "The bonny lass of Fife E O", thinking that she came from Fife, which is another county of Scotland, just to the north of Edinburgh. She obviously didn't come from there, because there are so many references to other geographical areas in the song that are close to Fyvie, like "Garioch" (pron. Geerie), "Howe o'Auchterless", the city of "Aberdeen", etc. and I knew many a bonnie Jean in the toon o' Aiberdeen in my time.

So these songs and so many others have been corrupted over time.

Just done a search of Google and found Cornkisters, which took me to a website where you an purchase several vinyl Albums called "Bothy Nichts, the songs of Northeast Scotland" (a Bothy was a hut to where the farmworkers retired after a hard day's work in the fields, where they would entertain themselves with stories and songs. Remember there was no radio or television then. LOL) The song, "The Bonny Lass o'Fyvie" is on Volume 2. You can also look up Fyvie on Google Maps.

Want any more info, you can contact me on kennchristie1 at gmail.com