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Bonny Moorhen

[ Roud 2944 ; G/D 7:1426 ; Ballad Index RcMyBoMu ; Mudcat 10726 ; trad.]

Ewan MacColl sang The Bonnie Moorhen in 1962 on his Topic album The Jacobite Rebellions. The album’s sleeve notes commented:

Nearly all the Jacobite songs were “cried down songs”; that is, they were proscribed. Consequently, songwriters and singers tended to codify their verses. Charles Stuart appears in the songs in a host of disguises; as a blackbird, as “our guidman” and, in this song, as a moorhen. The colours mentioned in the second verse allude to those found in the Clan Stuart tartan.

Steeleye Span recorded Bonny Moorhen in 1973 for their album Parcel of Rogues but it was left out of the final album. It was released four years later on their compilation album Original Masters.

Heather Heywood sang My Bonnie Moorhen in 1987 on her Greentrax album Some Kind of Love. She noted:

After the Jacobite Rebellions and with the defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, nearly all the Jacobite songs were proscribed and songwriters and singers often ‘coded’ their songs. Charles Stuart appears in many guises and in this song is described as My Bonnie Moorhen. The colours mentioned refer to those found in the Clan Stuart Tartan. I heard this song years ago sung by the Glasgow group, The Whistlebinkies, but when I decided to learn it later, I picked up the words from an LP on Topic by Ewan MacColl.

Carolyn Robson sang Bonny Moorhen on her 1999 album All the Fine Young Men, and Craig Morgan Robson sang My Bonnie Moorhen on their 2009 CD Hummingbird’s Feather. They noted:

The Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg (1770-1835) was once a self-educated shepherd. As. a result, his work had too many rough edges for the Victorian sensibility, and he is only recently beginning to gain wider recognition as a writer. My Bonny Moorhen (an allegorical reference to Bonnie Prince Charlie) is a fragment collected by Hogg and appeared in the First Series of his Jacobite Relics in 1819. Hogg claimed that he took down the song from oral tradition, from the singing of a ‘half-daft man’ called Willie Dodds.

Jim Reid sang My Bonnie Moorhen in 2005 on his Greentrax album Yont the Tay. He noted:

The Bonnie Moorhen is, of course, Bonnie Prince Charlie. I loved Lorna Campbell’s version of it and have sung it myself for years.

Alasdair Roberts sang The Bonny Moorhen on his 2023 album Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall. He noted:

This Jacobite-era allegorical song was learnt from an anonymous recording, made at the 1985 Orkney Folk Festival, which is held in the School of Scottish Studies sound archive.

Note: The Bonny Moorhen that Martin Carthy sang in 2014 on his and Eliza Carthy’s duo album, The Moral of the Elephant, is quite another song with just the same title. It’s about a fight between starving lead miners and a band of gamekeepers representing the landowners.

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl sings The Bonnie Moorhen

My bonnie moorhen, my bonnie moorhen,
Up in the grey hill, doon in the glen;
It’s when ye gang butt the house, when ye gang ben,
Aye drink a health to my bonnie moorhen.

My bonnie moorhen’s gane over the main
And it will be simmer or she comes again;
But when he comes back again some folk will ken,
Joy be with thee, my bonnie moorhen.

My bonnie moorhen has feathers anew,
She’s a’ fine colours, but nane o’ them blue.
She’s red and she’s white and she’s green and she’s grey,
My bonnie moorhen, come hither away.

Come up by Glenduich and down by Glendee,
And round by Kinclaven and hither to me;
For Ronald and Donald are oot on the fen
Tae break the wing of my bonnie moorhen.

Steeleye Span sing Bonny Moorhen

My bonny moorhen, my bonny moorhen,
Up in the grey hills, down in the glen;
When ye gang butt the house, when ye gang ben,
For drink a health to my bonny moorhen.

My bonny moorhen’s gane over the main
And it will be summer when he comes again;
But when he comes back again some folk will ken,
For joy be with you, my bonny moorhen.

My bonny moorhen has feathers anew,
They’re all fine colours but nane o’ them blue.
He’s red and he’s white and he’s green and he’s grey,
My bonny moorhen, come hither away.

Come up by Glenouicm and down by Glenmore,
Round by Kinclaven and hither tae me;
For Ronald and Donald are oot on the fen
Tae break the wing of my bonny moorhen.

(repeat last two verses)