Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Rowan Tree

Scottish Folk Song By Lady Nairne

The Rowan Tree is a Scottish song written by Perthshire-born Lady Nairne (1766-1845), a song writer and collector of Scottish songs.

Carolina Oliphant, (Lady Nairne), 1766-1845, wrote these song lyrics for the tune (the origin of which is unknown). The Rowan Tree appeared in R. A. Smith's Scottish Minstrel (1822).

Lady Nairne was a song collector and wrote some of Scotland's best-known songs. Some of her songs and prose have been attributed to Robert Burns, Walter Scott or James Hogg.


Related Scottish Country Dances

Bonnie Tree
Rowan Tree (Butterfield)
Rowan Tree (Veranth)

The Rowan Tree By Carolina Oliphant, (Lady Nairne)

Oh! rowan tree, oh! rowan tree,
Thou'lt aye be dear to me,
En twin'd thou art wi' mony ties
O' hame and infancy.
Thy leaves were aye the first o' spring,
Thy flow'rs the simmer's pride;
There was na sic a bonnie tree
In a' the countrie side.
Oh! rowan tree.

How fair wert thou in simmer time,
Wi' a' thy clusters white,
How rich and gay thy autumn dress,
Wi' berries red and bright.
On thy fair stem were mony names,
Which now nae mair I see;
But thy're engraven on my heart,
Forgot they ne'er can be.
Oh! rowan tree.

We sat aneath thy spreading shade,
The bairnies round thee ran,
They pu'd thy bonnie berries red,
And necklaces they strang;
My mither, oh! I see her still,
She smiled our sports to see,
Wi' little Jeanie on her lap,
And Jamie on her knee.
Oh!, rowan tree.

Oh! there arose my father's prayer
In holy evening's calm;
How sweet was then my mother's voice
In the Martyr's psalm!
Now a'are gane! We meet nae mair
Aneath the rowan tree,
But hallowed thoughts around thee
Turn o'hame and infancy.
Oh! rowan tree.


The Rowan Tree Song Video

The Rowan Tree Song - Information Video
The Rowan Tree
The Rowan Tree


The Online Scots Dictionary Translate Scots To English.
Image copyright Eeno11 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Back to the top of this 'The Rowan Tree Song' page