And for the day that’s in it and because it’s never brought to mind we’re marking Burns Day for Ellisland syne.
Ellisland Farm, near Dumfries in Scotland’s south-west, was where our national bard wrote the New Year’s anthem For Auld Lange Syne.
His witches’ tale Tam O’Shanter and his paean to doomed love Ae Fond Kiss.
But the only home the wordsmith actually built sits in the shadow of the National Trust village of Alloway and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.
Although there is a fightback by friends of Ellisland to restore the farmhouse in the Burns story.
Fair farm
It was to this little corner of Scotland where Burns at the height of his popularity had repaired to a more domestic lot.
The famously restless and spendthrift Burns had, by 1788, set his sights on the lucrative post of an Excise Officer.
And the writer settled on one of three vacant farms his trusty friend Patrick Miller had on offer.
With Burns describing 170-acre Ellisland Farm, with its view over the River Nith and orchard, as ‘the poet’s ch9ice,’
Burns’s choice was to turn it into a splendid six-apartment house, described as a “modest mansion” by visitors in 1789.
Ae Fond Nith
It was here then among his new country gent set on Nithside that the Ploughman Poet was inspired to write his classic poems.
Surrounded by his ten cows, four horses and some sheep.
Of course, Burns’s native Ayrshire was never too far from his mind.
And it was while regaling himself in the sumptious surrounds of Ellisland Farm that his mind drifted back to the Alloway Kirk.
Dumfries Trail
And you can to this day see the gravestone of his father William.
Which Robert, brought up on spooky stories by his grandmother at the nearby cottage, used as the set for his witches’ fable.
If you want to find Robert Burns himself though then you’ll want to go back into Dumfries.
And the St Michael’s Churchyard where Robert lies for eternity with his long-suffering wife Jean Armour and some of their brood.
The Robert Burns House, another dwelling where the great man lived, on Mill Street is where he died at 37 and which is now a museum with free entry.
Other features on your Burns Dumfries Trail include the 18th century hostelry, The Globe Inn, known as ‘Burns Howff’ with poems etched on to window panes.
While the Robert Burns Centre , an 18th-century watermill on the banks of the river, features an exhibition about his life in the town.
And the Brow Well & Ruthwell, outside the town, is where Burns sought a cure for the illness which claimed his lfe.
The Immortal Memory
So we’ll tak a drink of kindness now and toast The Immortal Memory.
In truth we did so yesterday at our Burns Supper in the hoose.
And wish the Burnsophiles at Ellisland Farm good luck in their fundraising for their refurb.
With particular interest in the section reaching out to the Scots-American diaspora.
Now if only we could think of a Scots-American with deep pockets and influence who could help rebuild a big, beautiful Burns House.
