"The Banks O' Doon" (

Modern Scots Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700. Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of ...

: ''The Banks o Doon'') is a Scots song written by

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

in 1791, sometimes known as "Ye Banks and Braes" (after the opening line of the third version). Burns set the lyrics to an

air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

called The Caledonian Hunt's Delight. Its melodic schema was also used for ''Phule Phule Dhole Dhole'', a song by

Bengali poet Bengali poetry is a rich tradition of poetry in the Bengali language and has many different forms. Originating in the Bengal region of South Asia, the history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development: poetry of the ear ...

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. The song was inspired by the story of Margaret (Peggy) Kennedy (1766—95), who was seduced and then abandoned by Andrew McDouall, the son of a wealthy family and sometime Member of Parliament for

Wigtonshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...

. Kennedy sued for a

declarator A declarator in Scottish law is a form of legal action by which some right of property, servitude, or status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** City status ** Legal s ...

of marriage, but died prior to adjudication of the case. Although the Consistorial court found the marriage claim valid, the

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decided the marriage claim failed, but found McDouall to be the father of Kennedy's daughter and ordered that he pay £3,000 to Kennedy's estate and provide for the child. (Burns wrote a second poem about Peggy, whom he had met when she was 18 - ''Young Peggy Blooms''.) The song uses the same tune as the

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n variant of the English Folk song " Foggy Dew".

Lyrics

Burns wrote three versions of the song, all published in 1791.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banks O' Doon, The Poetry by Robert Burns 1790s songs 1791 in Scotland 1791 poems Songs with lyrics by Robert Burns Scots-language works