In the N.E. of Scotland ploughmen were hired at hiring fairs and while in service at a farm slept in small buildings called Bothies. At the end of the day the ploughmen would amuse themselves by singing and making up songs. The 'Barnyards' is an example of a bothy song.

The Turriff feeing market was the largest in Aberdeenshire and attracted hundreds of farm hands looking for a "fee", a six month contract on a farm, and farmers looking for cheap labour. The farm hands would wear a corn plait on their jacket until they were hired and given their "Arles". (The farmers equivalent to the "King's Shilling").

These shillings were usually spent in the whisky booths at the fair, where songs and tunes were swapped and learned, thus ensuring the wide circulation that the Bothy Ballads achieved. A farm with the bad reputation of Delgaty would be known throughout N.E. Scotland.