New Deer Primary
New Deer School is a lovely wee school in New Deer with around 130 pupils.
The village is well known in the North East for it's surrounding farms and of course the New Deer Show which takes place every year in July. There's also the Culsh Monument to the north of the village.
Both the show and the monument inspired new rhymes from the pupils!
P3 New Rhymes - Created by the whole class and Pauline
Pauline visited the P3 class and told them all about Annie.
She wanted to write a couple of rhymes with the P3 pupils and asked them what was special about New Deer. There were so many ideas! But they chose to create a rhyme about The Culsh Monument.
The monument was built in 1876 to remember Aberdeenshire's first Member of Parliament, William Fordyce. He was really good to people who lived on his land and tried to make life easier for poor farm workers.
P3 also wrote a rhyme about their favourite things and things they don't like!
The Culsh Monument is in New Deer
It's gae near 80fit tall
The spiral stairs they mak mi dizzy
I hope I dinna fall
We're gaen tae climb, hud on ticht
Aa the wiy tae the top!
Bit fin we get there, fit can wi see?
Fields an fields o fairmers crops!
The P3s heard some of Annie’s original rhymes and illustrated them!
Them that washes on Monday gets aa week tae dry,
Them that washes on Tuesday is nae far by;
Them that washes on Wednesday they wash wi’ muckle speed;
Them that washes on Feersday aften wash for greed;
Them that washes on Friday they surely wash for need,
And them that washes on Saturday are dirty fowk indeed.
Hush ba, baby, dinna mak’ a din,
And ye’ll get a fishie, fin the boat comes in
Wi like watchin fairmers
An playin in the park
Bit wi dinna like the smell o muck!
Or bein in the dark
We also like chocolate,
Heilan flings an ither things
Bit the worst o aa is a byke o wasps
An the affa sare stings!
P6/7 New Rhymes - Created by the whole class and Pauline
Pauline told the P6/7 class all about Annie - her education, her job, how she was the main carer for her Uncle and Cousin - and how she used to head off on her bicycle collecting rhymes for the Rymour Club and songs for Gavin Greig.
They then looked at the seasonal rhyme about being back at school after Christmas - the pupils voted to write a rhyme about the Hairst, the harvest.
The rhyme Annie collected:
Yule has come, and yule has gone,
And we’ve a’ fared weel;
Jockie’s at his flail again,
And Jennie’s at her wheel,
And a’ the loons and lassiekies,
Are back at the skweel.
A big date in the New Deer calendar is the New Deer Show!
There's yowes an shelties, tractors braw
Honkin lorries hurlin roon
Heilan coos an races
Are ye comin doon?
Tractor pullin, bands sing sangs
Auld motors in a row
A talent show, a fair, a dunce
Aa at the New Deer Show!
Noo the time is hairstin time
It's a busy time o year!
There's the combine, an the bailer
An ither funcy gear
O aa the hairsts in Scotland
The best aene's in New Deer!
P6/7 New Rhymes - Created by the pupils in groups
The class then split up in to groups to work with Annie’s original rhymes, creating their own versions using the Doric and Scots words they already knew and some words from vocabulary sheets.
See "Resources for Schools" tab to find the vocabulary sheets and sheets used for creating new rhymes in the workshops.
Annie's Collected Rhymes
New "New Deer" Rhymes
The tatties they ha'e a gane wrang,
And vexed the farmers sairly;
And gin ye chance to buy a peck,
It's man, they'll scrimp ye fairly
The moggie, kittlen playin wi a ba
A moosie wis rinnin alang the waa
The kittlen wis hungert fur a snack
Oot cam its clooks an it gied it a whack!
A Riddle!
Four and twenty white kye stan'in in a raw
Oot cam the red bull an' lickit ower them a'?
(teeth and tongue)
Three and twenty grey doos
Peckin seeds on the widden fleer
Oot cam the harvester
And went tae get some mair
by Ethan and Cohan
A Riddle!
White doo featherless cam' doon frae Paradise;
And lichtit on yon castle wa';
By cam' Laird Landlkess and took it up handless,
Syn rain cam' and washed it awa?
(snow)
A Riddle!
There's fite fleein sponges in the sky
We aa see them, richt up high
The doos an foggie bummers squeeze them ticht
Syne pitter patter aa day an nicht
(rain)
by Faith and Eilidh
The rottans and the mice they a' fell a'strife,
And widna let my meat be until I got a wife,
When I got a wife, my wife she couldna rin,
And I got a hurl barrow, to hurl her oot and in.
They hurl barrow broke and my wife she got a fa',
Shame gang wi' the hurl barra, ill-deen wife an a'
The rottans and the mice rin aboot the fairm
They're causin lots o hairm!
Then I got a kittlen tae chase them awa
Bit ower time the kittlen grew intae a moggie
And the moggie wis growin auld
by Joey and Kirsty
Guid faith! I'm sure your pans will sell,
For brose at ilka toon;
Jist swing them on yer back my lad,
And hawk them roon' and roon'.
Guid faith! i'm sure yir puddocks will loup for ye
For oors an oors
An if they dinnae I'm sure they will the morn
Clash-pyottie, clash-pyottie, sits on the tree
Dings doon aipples one, two, three;
One to the master, and one to the man
And one to the laddie that ca's the caravan,
But nane tae the clash-pyot, what will we gie
Gie to the clash-pyot that sits in the tree,
A barrowfu' o muck, and a barrowfu' o hay
And we will carry the clash-pyottie down to the Bay!
Ma brither, ma brither, sittin on a wa
He took pi precious puddock awa
Grab him by the lugs
Chuck him on the grun
Look for mi puddock but he's naewye tae be fun
By Libby, Katie and Elspeth
A Riddle!
Foure redrootrees, foure upstanders
Twa lookie-oots, twa crookit boots
Twa leatherin' cloots, and a waggie?
(a coo)
A Riddle!
Twa leggies an twa beady ees
A wad o muddy feathers,
A wee beak under its ees
And a wee tailie at the ither end
(a doo)
by Jake, Lilly, Hosie and Kiera
When the breakers roar at Rattray Heid,
We ken the weather will be gweed'
But when they roar at Achentumb,
A' the ill weather is to come
Fam the dug bairks at New Deer Show
Ye ken fan it's cauld, there's gaen tae be snow
Bit fan ye see a tod in the wid haen fun
It means next wik there's gaen tae be sun
by Innes and Harris
© 2025. All rights reserved.
Celebrating Annie Shirer's Work Collecting Doric Rhymes In Buchan.
This project was made possible with funding from