‘Broadly speaking, we have not heard of her because of sexism’
The Rowan Tree is the work of Lady Nairne, an Edinburgh aristocrat who wrote songs and poems in the same era as more famous figures like Robert Burns and Robert Tannahill.
The song is one of her most famous songs and remains a folk favourite but many modern fans believe Lady Nairne, despite also being behind standards like Will Ye No’ Come Back Again and Charlie Is My Darling, has been overlooked compared to her male contemporaries.
“This is down to, broadly speaking, sexism,” said Dr Thomas A Mckean, of the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen, a centre for the study of folklore and ethnology, a folklorist specialising in Scots and Gaelic song
“Think of the titles and people would recognise them more than the songs of Tannahill and probably most of Robert Burns’ material.
“The songs are a huge part of the Scottish psyche but the name is not, which is curious.
“It’s partly because they were published in various bits and pieces, and not in a single publication, something like Fifty Songs By Carolina Oliphant for instance. And she wasn’t a celebrity on the literary scene of Edinburgh, like Burns was.”
Lady Nairne often removed her name from her songs, publishing instead under gender neutral “BB” when submitting her contributions to The Scottish Minstrel – she did not even tell her husband of her songwriting.
“If you think about Lady Nairne not attaching her name to songs, well this was the time of the Bronte sisters publishing under male pseudonyms,” added Dr Mckean.
“She didn’t attach her name to her songs because she wanted to get the songs out there but didn’t want to bring herself into disrepute.
“In Gaelic tradition, there are many female poets but there are no professional female bards. And there are several stories of women song-makers being buried face down because composing songs was an unseemly thing to be doing.
“So there’s this longstanding history that women aren’t supposed to be out of the home, doing these things. And presumably the men didn’t want any competition…”
“The music tradition, particularly the instrumental tradition, is seen as a manly thing. But the ballad tradition of Scotland, except perhaps the bothy ballads, was carried, or at least majority carried, by women.
“It’s acknowledged within folk circles how important women were to the folk music tradition, but broadly speaking not in wider Scottish society.”
Rowan trees, according to Dr Mckean, were important in both the historical Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, and would be found at most homes as a way of warding off evil spirits.
The song is also a favourite of acclaimed folk singer Karine Polwart, who last performed it in 2020.
“It’s not a technically difficult song, it’s a sort of bonny, spry melody. It’s quite sweet. Lisa Knapp’s version from Living has that sweet quality.
“The song it’s most close to is maybe not a Scottish song, but Oh Danny Boy. Both songs have real sentimentality and emotion.
“The use of the song suggests reflecting on one’s life. The last time I performed the song was in a friend’s garden, in June 2020.
Her mother had late-stage cancer and I did a little gig for her. I asked her to choose a song which meant something to her.
“It’s a song which is probably special to a lot of people. Our parents’ generation perhaps were taught it at school or remember it being performed when they were younger.
“Rowan Tree has this timelessness in its form, both in the melody and the words.”
Polwart has suggested it is time there was wider acknowledgement of Lady Nairne’s contribution to Scottish folk music.
“We could be doing better by acknowledging the role someone like Carolina Nairne played in Scottish folk music. Burns and Tannahill have had a lot of attention but she’s been a little bit lost.
“But when you look at her songs, a lot of them have stuck.”