Sir Harold Boulton, 2nd Baronet composed the lyrics to an air collected by Anne Campbell MacLeod in the 1870s. (He also wrote the lyrics to Glorious Devon in 1905. The recording by Peter Dawson in 1929 became nationally known through broadcasts by the BBC.)

Alternative lyrics to the tune were written by Robert Louis Stevenson, probably in 1885. After hearing the Jacobite airs sung by a visitor, he judged the lyrics to be "unworthy", so made a new set of verses "more in harmony with the plaintive tune".[1]

1. Mrs R. L. Stevenson. "Prefatory Note". In Robert Louis Stevenson. Poems. Volume I. p. 58. London: Heinemann, 1924. The visitor was Elizabeth Anne Ferrier who stayed with Stevenson in June 1885 (Robert Louis Stevenson. Letters, Volume V. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995). Wikipedia