The tune was composed by Daniel (sometimes Donald) Dow (1732-1783) in 1776 and first appeared in his Thirty Seven New Reels, c. 1780, under the title "Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk's Strathspey" (Sir Archibald, the third Baronet, founded the town of Archiestown, near Monahoudie Moss on Speyside. He died in 1796 in Aberdeenshire). It takes it's name from an Aberdeenshire, Scotland, estate called Monymusk House, long in the possession of the Grant family. 'Moneymusk' is the 'Englished' version of the Gaelic words "Muine muisc" meaning a 'noxious weed or bush'. I learned it from print.