Local links for Scotland's famous folk song writer

As it's St Andrew's Day this week, Jonathan Rowe salutes our friends North of the Border with a look at the life, times and Bristol connections of a woman who did a great deal to create Scotland's image of itself.

- Jonathan Rowe

Lady Nairne

WHAT does Scotland mean to you? Men in tartan kilts playing bagpipes? Haggis, whisky, tins of shortbread? Deep fried Mars bars?

Older readers may remember singers like Moira Anderson and Andy Stewart, whose poignant hit ‘A Scottish Soldier’ (1960) was an early childhood memory for me. But did you know Bristol has a connection with one of Scotland’s most famous song writers, Lady Carolina Nairne?

Born Carolina Oliphant in Perthshire in 1766, she was named after Prince Charles Edward Stuart, aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie’) aka “The Young Pretender” - her family were great supporters of the Jacobite cause; the Stuart dynasty’s claim to the throne.

Her Scottish folksongs are often tinged with sadness for a lost past never to return, and include ‘Will Ye No Come Back Again, ‘Charlie Is My Darling’ ‘A Hundred Pipers’ and ‘The Rowan Tree’

In 1806, at the age of 41 Carolina married her 50-year-old second cousin, William Murray Nairne, who became Lord Nairne in 1824. Their son, also William Murray Nairne, was born in 1808.