"The Dowie Dens of Yarrow", also known as "The Braes of Yarrow" or simply "Yarrow", is a Scottish border ballad (Child 214, Roud 13). There are numerous versions of the ballad. Child recorded at least 19, the earliest of which was taken from Walter Scott's The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1803). However, the song is much older: William Hamilton of Bangour wrote a poem called "The Braes of Yarrow" which has some basis in the ballad, and which appears in a collection of his poems first published in Edinburgh in 1724. There are also American versions which go under the corrupted title of "Derry Dems of Arrow."
The song is closely associated with the geographical area of the valley of the Yarrow Water that extends through the Scottish borders towards Selkirk. The song is believed to be based on an actual incident. The hero of the ballad was a knight of great bravery, popularly believed to be John Scott, sixth son of the Laird of Harden. According to history, he met a treacherous and untimely death in Ettrick Forest at the hands of his kin, the Scotts of Gilmanscleugh in the seventeenth century. However, recent scholars are sceptical about this story as the origin of the song.
