The vast majority of the Gaelic poems composed by women which have survived from before 1750 date from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. There are almost 200 songs from this period composed by women, with over thirty named authors, illustrating the lasting appeal of these old songs and, thus, the skill of those who made them. The clan system all that period was in decline, and with it the stranglehold of the literate bardic class on certain types of poetry, while the political turmoil of the age provided both opportunity and occasion for women to step into the breach left by the professional bards. Many of the vernacular poets who come to notice at this time were themselves from the higher strata of Gaelic society, and familiar with the forms and structures of bardic verse, which they combined with the vernacular language to create a new form of poetry, based on stress rather than on the syllabic counts of Classical Common Gaelic. The majority of these ‘new’ poets, especially the women, were unlettered, although highly literate, or perhaps more accurately, articulate. Their libraries were in their heads, and their often ex tempore compositions display a thorough knowledge of Clan history and Gaelic legend, while their memories of other songs were used as a framework on which to build their own. This same memory is the means by which the songs were passed down from generation to generation so that, although the ‘literature’ of Gaelic-speaking women in Scotland is virtually non-existent up to 1750, and beyond, their literary productions are plentiful.

The earliest datable songs which have been attributed to female authors, however, were composed by members of the literate aristocracy. Aithbhreac nighean Coirceadail's lament for her husband, the warden of Castle Sween in Knapdale, is composed in the rannaigheacht mhor syllabic metre, using Classical Gaelic, and drawing on the examples of bardic elegy for her imagery in praise of her husband. Iseabail Ni Mheic Cailein was influenced by the fashion for courtly love poetry, which probably reached Scotland from France via Ireland, in the subject matter for two of her poems.