<P> "Wild Mountain Thyme" (also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?") is an Irish / Scottish folk song . The lyrics and melody are a variant of the song "The Braes of Balquhither" by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill (1774--1810) and Scottish composer Robert Archibald Smith (1780--1829), but were adapted by Belfast musician Francis McPeake into "Wild Mountain Thyme" and first recorded by his family in the 1950s . </P> <P> Tannahill's original song, first published in Robert Archibald Smith's Scottish Minstrel (1821--24), is about the hills (braes) around Balquhidder near Lochearnhead . Like Robert Burns, Tannahill collected and adapted traditional songs, and "The Braes of Balquhither" may have been based on the traditional song "The Braes o' Bowhether". </P>

Who wrote the song will you go lassie go