This tune was composed before 1728 by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738). It was written as an air; waltzes did not yet exist. The tune and words of the song that went with it were dedicated to Frances, the daughter of O'Carolan's patrons David and Elizabeth Power of Coorheen in Loughrea, County Galway. She was long-lived and survived until 1793.
The hornpipe probably has an Irish provenance, with first publication date around 1847. The melody has been adopted by several genres. For example, it was the basis for the old-time tune Possum up the Gum Stump.
This reel was the first tune ever written by Shetland fiddler Samuel Ian Rothmar Burns, probably around 1960. Spootiskerry is the name of a farm in the author's family. In his tunebook, also called Spootiskerry, he says "Spootiskerry [is] the croft belonging to my late grand aunts, Bella and Joan Nicolson, situated between the village of Sullom, and the new town of Brae." A spoot is a razor clam, one of the edible "ebb meats" taken from the shore at low tide, named because it "spoots" (or spouts) when you disturb it. A skerry is a group of rocks which are only sometimes visible at low tide.