Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Burns Heritage Trail
The
Burns Heritage Trail
can be followed by car or on a bus tour. The main
destinations are the national poet's places of birth and death, with a few lesser land-
marks in and around Ayr thrown in for good measure. Son of a gardener and tenant
farmer, Burns was born January 25, 1759, in the village of
Alloway,
which is now
part of the suburbs south of the coastal town Ayr. The
Burns Cottage & Museum
exhibits family items. Nearby are the church where his father William is buried (and
where the haunted creatures of Burn's
Tam O'Shanter
came to life); the Greek
revival
Burns Memorial;
and the arched bridge over the River Doon, the Brig o'
Doon, which has been immortalized, for better or worse, by the Lerner and Loewe
musical
Brigadoon.
Further afield in the town of Dumfries is the
Burns' House,
where the bard died
July 21, 1796. Here are more relics and items, the most impressive of which may be
his signature, scrawled using a diamond in a window of the cottage. Twenty years
after his death, Burns was moved to a purpose-built mausoleum in Dumfries, where
some of his friends were also interred.
AY R
Ayr is the logical place to begin any journey through Burns Country, and the town
has a few associations with the bard itself.
Ayr's 15th-century
Auld Brig
(old bridge), according to the poet, “stood flood an'
tide” and he wrote it would still be standing when the New Brig (built in his lifetime)
was reduced to a “shapeless cairn [stone heap].” And Burns was correct: The so-
called New Brig came down and was replaced in the 19th century. But the Auld Brig
remains and is one of the oldest stone bridges in Scotland.
Not far away on the banks of the River Ayr is the
Auld Kirk
(old church), which
dates to 1655, when it replaced the 12th-century Church of St. John, which was
seized and dismantled by the invading forces of Oliver Cromwell. Robert Burns was
baptized in the Auld Kirk. Its greatest curiosity, however, is a macabre series of “mort
safes,” metal grates which covered freshly filled graves to discourage grave-robbers
or, more likely, body snatchers seeking cadavers for sale to medical colleges.
On the High Street, the
Tam O'Shanter Inn
is presumably the site of the tavern
(“and ay the ale was growing better”) where Tam leaves his drinking buddy Souter
Johnnie and sets off riding his trusty gray mare Meg on that infamously stormy eve-
ning in Burn's epic and comic poem.
The
Wallace Tower,
also on High Street, rises some 34m (112 ft.). Constructed
in 1828, it has a statue of medieval Scottish rebel William Wallace (celebrated by
Mel Gibson's film
Braveheart
) by local sculptor James Thom. Legend holds that
Wallace was imprisoned here and made a daring escape.
Ayr After Dark
Rabbie's Bar
The walls are highlighted with the pithy verses of Robert Burns,
and his portrait is painted directly onto the wall. However, don't come here expecting
poetry readings in a quiet corner. The crowd, while not particularly literary, is
talkative.
23 Burns Statue Sq.
&
01292/262-112.
Mon-Sat 11am-12:30am; Sun noon-midnight.
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