Dance The Birks of Abergeldie 521

Bonnie lassie, will ye go, will ye go, will ye go,
Bonnie lassie, will ye go to the Birks of Abergeldie?
Ye sall get a gown of silk, a gown of silk, a gown of silk,
Ye sall get a gown of silk and a coat of callimankel.

Na, kind sir, I daur na gang, I daur na gang, I daur na gang.
Na, kind sir, I daur na gang, my minnie wad be angry.
Sair, sair, wad she flyte, wad she flyte, wad she flyte,
Sair, sair, wad she flyte and sair, sair, she wad ban me.
– Old original words

Abergeldie and Aberfeldy sound very much alike and this coincidence naturally occured to Robert Burns on a September day in 1787 when he and his rather bad-tempered friend, William Nicol, Latin master of the Edinburgh High School, visited the Falls of Moness near Aberfeldy.

Aberfeldy is in Perthshire, on the River Tay, the site of one of General George Wade’s bridges and the birthplace of the Black Watch (The Royal Highland Regiment). Abergeldie is in Aberdeenshire, in Royal Deeside, about six miles west of Ballater on the south bank of the Dee. Abergeldie Castle was a residence of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales. Here the hillsides are thick with birch trees, which are lacking in Aberfeldy. Thus, poetic license was taken.

“The Birks of Abergeldie” first appeared in John Playford’s The English Dancing Master (1657) and was called a “Scotch Ayre”. It was also included in Henry Playford’s collection of 1700, called A Collection of Original Scotch Tunes (Full of Highland Humours) for the Violin.

Thus, Burns could hardly stop himself from writing the song that begins:

Now simmer blinks on flowery braes,
And o’er the crystal streamlet plays,
Come let us spend the lightsome days
  In the Birks of Aberfeldy.
Chorus
Bonnie lassie, will ye go, Will ye go, will ye go,
Bonnie lassie, will ye go
  To the Birks of Aberfeldy?