I agree about the tunes. Mrs Coates' tune is nothing like Frank Quinn's. In fact after a quick look at Bronson, none of the tunes there are like Frank Quinn's either. (Both Mrs Coates' tune and Frank Quinn's seem quite singular).

In fact the Ulster Folklife quote above (But here is a Scots Ballad which, although it must be over two hundred years in these parts, is still sung to the air of The Uist Tramping Song:) doesn't imply that the Uist Tramping Song melody was used for 200 years, only that the words were about for 200 years, and are currently (my emphasis) being sung to the Uist Tramping Song melody. This could be a recent (but popular) marrying of words and tune. The 1938 copyright on Songs Of the Isles would have allowed the tune to be known to Frank Quinn (or his ultimate source). As Lighter says above Roberton's Songs Of The Isles clearly gives John R Bannerman as composer of the tune, whereas elsewhere in the book he credits other tunes as traditional.

Mick