Burns Cottage & Museum

Burns Cottage

Alloway's various attractions associated with Robert Burns fall naturally into two groups. At the southern end of Alloway are the Burns Monument, Garden and Statue House; the Brig o' Doon; and the Tam o' Shanter Experience which together form the largest part of the Burns National Heritage Park. Not far away is Alloway Old Kirk which played a starring role in the poem Tam o' Shanter. And at the northern end of Alloway you find Burns Cottage and the Burns Cottage Museum.

Cottage Interior The Byre Rear of the Cottage & Kitchen Garden Burns Cottage Museum Manuscript Room Museum Shop

These also form part of the Burns National Heritage Park, and are the only parts for which there is an admission charge: see panel, right. As a result it tends to be less busy than other parts of the Park. Which is a shame, because a visit to the cottage brings you closer than anywhere else in Scotland to Robert Burns himself; while the museum, built in 1900, gives a fascinating insight into Burns and his work, and houses the largest collection of his manuscripts in existence.

Plans (and most of the funding) are in place to replace the existing museum (which in recent years has shown itself to be less weather-proof than might be thought ideal in a home for irreplacable manuscripts) as part of a £17m project. It is hoped that this will be complete in time for Homecoming Scotland 2009, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. The new museum will be built nearer the critical mass of attractions at the southern end of the village, while the existing museum will become an education centre dedicated to Robert Burns.

Which in many ways adds a degree of urgency to any planned visit. The replacement museum will certainly be magnificent, but we are glad to have been able to experience the quiet charm and atmosphere of the existing museum before it comes to the end of the better part of eleven decades of life. It houses several hundred Burns manuscripts as well as a fascinating collection of personal items, many artworks inspired by Burns, an amazing collection of "Burnsiana" from around the world, and a large library of books by or about Burns.

Burns Cottage Museum from Garden

Characterised Planter

But the highlight of any visit to this end of the village is - and will remain - a tour of Burns Cottage. This was built in 1757 by William Burnes, Robert's father (Robert and his brother later changed the spelling of the family name to Burns, which is what is shown on their father's grave in the kirkyard of Alloway Old Kirk). Robert Burns was born in the cottage on 25 January 1759 and spent the first seven years of his life here before the growing family moved to a larger house a mile and a half south east of Alloway.

William Burnes sold the cottage to the Incorporation of Shoemakers in Ayr, who leased it out for use as an alehouse. Within a few years of Burns' death in 1796 his fame was already attracting a steady stream of visitors to Alloway, and the alehouse had to be extended to cope with the growing amount of business it was attracting. Many of these visitors were also arriving to see the Burns Monument, which had been built between 1820 and 1823. In 1881 the trustees of the Burns Monument purchased Burns Cottage from the Incorporation of Shoemakers, and spent the next twenty years restoring it to its original condition, then building the Burns Cottage Museum nearby.

As was usual at the time, the cottage provided living space for the family and its farm animals under the same roof, and the interior today accurately reflects its appearance when young Robert lived here, complete with models of family members and an audio soundtrack. Outside, parts of the smallholding have been recreated, adding further to the sense of "really being there". All that's missing from the cottage is the smell of its byre end: though perhaps that's something we should all be grateful for!

Burns Cottage Museum