The Ultimate Burns Tour in Scotland

1. Ayr
2. Mauchline
3. Dumfries
4. Mitchell Library, Glasgow
5. The Writer’s Museum, Edinburgh

1. Ayr

Any journey has to start in Ayr, the beginning of the Burns story – a No 1 Spot is Burns Cottage in Alloway. It’s not just a museum – it’s an icon, celebrated in pictures all over the world and even a perfect replica in Atlanta, Georgia!

Standing in that simple house, built by his own dad’s hands, you feel carried back to a life we can’t imagine. The back-breaking work of the farmer with the lack of money, meat or social security. Yet you feel the gifts that were given; family love, education, independence of spirit. The museum alongside gives you the chance to check the words of Auld Lang Syne (and there’s no ‘for the sake of’) against the manuscript in Rabbie’s own hand, to see the very first Kilmarnock edition of his poems (which started off this whole phenomenon) or to see the pistols he fired chasing smugglers along the Scottish coastline.

You could use his poem Tam o’Shanter as a guide round the adjoining Heritage Park – no witches today in the Alloway Auld Kirk (unless you’re brave enough to check it out at midnight?) but there is the poignant gravestone to Rabbie’s father, a testament to a son’s love and honour. At the Brig o’Doon itself you’ll find a graceful mediaeval arch over the river where Tam crosses running water and so eludes capture by the witches – as you walk across you’ll imagine horseshoes clattering in the distance. Catch the magnificent views of Burns Country from the top of the elegant Monument (the enterprising architect who designed it sold the design twice – so you can see it again on Calton Hill in Edinburgh) and enjoy the park and its facilities which are being redeveloped by the National Trust for Scotland.

2. Mauchline

For those of you wanting to catch the spirit of Rabbie the poet, the lover, the frequenter of controversies and bars alike, the place to visit is Mauchline which comes as the second recommendation. They say in the town that Burns ‘was born in Alloway, died in Dumfries but lived in Mauchline’. And the locals take great care of those memories especially on the day in May annually when the town is transformed into ‘The Holy Fair’ to become the Mauchline of the 1780s as celebrated in Robert’s poems. Horses, carts, haggises, singers and entertainers jostle in a street fair around the buildings our poet knew so well: the Burns House Museum (where he and Jean first set up home) and of course, the old pubs – Poosie Nancy’s and Nance Tinnock’s – which are a bit more demure now than when our lad passed their portals!

3. Dumfries

Number three on the list is the pretty town of Dumfries where Robert and Jean brought up their growing family in what’s now called Burns Street. You can see the house where he died aged only 37 and where Jean bore their last son on the day of his father’s huge funeral. They all three lie round the corner at St Michael’s churchyard. The poet’s mausoleum dates from slightly later but captures a feeling of pride and reverence for a genius taken too soon and will be a pilgrimage point for thousands this year. Rabbie was often inspired as he walked or rode around the countryside, and there are pleasant walks to be taken around Dumfries. What better, after a brisk ramble through the brambles, than to close the day at the Globe Tavern – which Burns called ‘my favourite howff’. Here where you can have a quiet pint or a wee dram and see the very chair that Burns sat on while entertaining the company in the evenings after his hard day’s work as an exciseman. We can find Burns in the big cities, too.

4. Mitchell Library, Glasgow

Glasgow’s collection of Burnsiana in the Mitchell Library is unsurpassed in the world – a constant stream of academics and fanatics use this as the motherlode of scholarship. So it is the 4th choice. It’s a huge and varied hoard, ranging from another Auld Lang Syne and many early books and manuscripts to a rather grisly plaster cast of the poet’s skull. During Homecoming 2009 the Mitchell held an exhibition of contemporary art inspired by Burns with works by Tracey Emin and John Byrne amongst others.

5. The Writers’ Museum, Edinburgh

And for No 5, let’s go over to Edinburgh, where one of the most enjoyable of Scotland’s small museums is The Writers’ Museum, tucked away off the Royal Mile. A jackdaw’s nest of memorabilia to do with our hero (and you also get marvellous objects relating to two other global figures in our literature: Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson).

What better than to share in the life and works of our national poet as you track the man himself down to the places he walked and talked, and then wrote himself into the history books.