Bothy ballad

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

Bothies are farm outbuildings, where unmarried labourers used to sleep, often in harsh conditions. In the evening, to entertain themselves, these bothy bands sang. Several Child Ballads that had died out elsewhere in the UK survived until the 1920s, sung by these workers. It was a male-only environment and some songs are obscene. They celebrated ploughmen as lovers ("The Plooman Laddies", "My Darling Ploughman Boy").