Lyrics:
Oh, the summer time is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
I will build my love a bower
By yon cool, crystal fountain
And on it, I will pile
All the flowers of the mountain
And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
I will range through the wilds
And the deep glen sae dreamy
And return wi’ their spoils
Tae the bower o’ me deary
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
If my true love, she was gone
I would surely find another
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
Lyrics from The McPeake's First Recording, 1952
Oh the summer time is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
I will build my love a tower
By yon clear, crystal fountain
And on it, I will pile
All the flowers of the mountain
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
If my true love she was gone
I would surely find another
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, lassie, go?
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About the Song:
“Wild Mountain Thyme,” while viewed in the public eye as a classic and essential traditional Irish song, is almost certainly less than 100 years old. The song was first recorded by Francis McPeake in 1957 for the BBC Series, “As I Roved Out” – a radio broadcast featuring prominent Irish musicians of the time inclding Sarah Makem, the mother of Tommy Makem.
During the broadcast, McPeake said he “heard an old uncle of [his, also named Francis McPeake,] singing years and years ago” under the title “Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?” The words are a clear adaptation of the Robert Tannahill poem “The Braes of Balquither” (c. 1800) set to the air of “The Three Carls o’ Buchanan.” The melody, however, appears to be original. That is corroborated by Jim McLean, an ethnologist, in his thesis, A Study of Two Tunes: The Three Carles o’ Buchanan and the Braes o’ Balquither in their Cultural Contexts From 1740 to the Present Day.
Parent song: The Braes of Balquhither (Robert Tannahill)
Other titles: Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go; Purple Heather