Bothy ballad

Bothy ballads are songs sung by farm labourers, specifically in the northeast region of Scotland.

Bothies are outbuildings on a big farm, where unmarried farm labourers used to sleep often in harsh conditions. In the evening, to entertain themselves they sang old songs and often composed their own songs. Several Child Ballads which had died out elsewhere in the UK, survived until the 1920s, still sung by working men. It was a men-only environment, and some songs are obscene. They consider ploughmen to be good lovers ("The Plooman Laddies", "My Darling Ploughman Boy").