Burns Night – a time to remember Robert (Rabbie) Burns, Scotland’s national poet – is celebrated across Scotland and elsewhere every year on 25 January, the day of his birth in 1759.
But his spirit lives on all year round in the south of Scotland, especially Dumfries because of his extraordinary legacy.
21 July is the anniversary of his death (1796) – he was just 37 – and a new way to honour the man and his legend has been launched.
A new storytelling tour…
…or ‘haunting adventure’ is held at the Globe Inn in Dumfries led by Kathleen Cronie from the award-winning Mostly Ghostly team.
On this tour of chilling tales and astonishing facts, Kathleen brings Burns to life amid the Globe Inn’s atmospheric rooms.
We’ve had a sneak preview and… it’s utterly fascinating.
Famous as Burns’s favourite howff (drinking place), the Globe Inn is a characterful pub and restaurant where he held court and which still attracts his fans in their droves.
His favourite chair still stands
And you too can sit on it. It’s allowed.
But there’s a catch: you must recite some of his work.
Or buy a round of drinks for the entire inn.
Take the Burns trail…
A walk about town has much to explore.
There are many Burns connections from the museums and arts spaces dedicated to his life and work to the famous statue made of Carrara marble in the town centre.
A literary sensation in his own lifetime
His impressive legacy included poetry, books, songs and written chiefly in the Scottish dialect.
He wrote about the things that gave him pleasure: love, nature and friendship.
He left his mark in other ways too, often scratching his name on windows of bars he frequented.
See if you can find any of his etchings in Moffat.
He was prolific in more ways than one
He had 12 children.
His funeral procession walked past his house as his wife Jean Armour was inside giving birth to his last.
His last home
Robert Burns House (free entry) is a two-storey red sandstone property on Burns Street, a characterful cobbled roadway, where he lived from 1793 until his death.
It is now a museum manned by enthusiastic staff who will guide you through the wealth of material he left behind from every-day household items to original manuscripts making up a rich social history archive.
Famous visitors over the years have included the poets Keats, Coleridge and Wordsworth who were inspired by Burns.
His final resting place
Burns lay in state at Midsteeple in the centre of Dumfries even though he had courted controversy for not standing up for the national anthem.
But it’s the mighty Robert Burns Mausoleum (now open to the public twice a day, seasonal) which brings pilgrims from far and wide.
This is where the poet and his wife lie at St Michael’s Kirkyard, the oldest church in Dumfries.
Its historic graveyard is packed with many of Burns’s friends and colleagues and there is an incredible collection of monumental sculptures commemorating religious ministers, lawyers and merchant princes.
A tour of this churchyard is a must.
The farm Burns built
Another place of pilgrimage is Robert Burns Museum Ellisland near Dumfries where Burns produced a quarter of his work.
He wrote Auld Lang Syne here
He had his most creative period at the farm.
An impressive archive of artefacts, manuscripts and personal items remain.
He designed his office to have two windows so he could gaze out on the landscape, surrounded by riverside and woodland paths.
Little has changed here since the 18th century.
Burns said of it: “As sweet poetic ground as any I ever saw”.
He was a man of the people
He promoted literacy and read the daily papers to the public for those who were illiterate.
What a man, what a legend.
Discover more on a tour at the Globe Inn here.
Dumfries is just a short drive from Moffat. Find out more here.
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