Burns Heritage in Ayrshire

Burns House Museum, Mauchline
Whether you are a first-time visitor to Mauchline or are returning to this historic town, a visit to the 4 star Burns House Museum is definitely worthwhile. The museum, situated in the cobbled back streets of Mauchline, is where Robert Burns lived and worked between 1784 and 1788, years widely regarded as being his most creative and productive period. This was the time that Burns established himself as a poet, leading to the publication of the famous "Kilmarnock Edition”.
Burns and his wife Jean Armour spent some time living in the building that is now the museum and it features a recreation of the actual room they lodged in. Full of rare collections, original objects and documents relating to Burns’ time, the museum also brings the Burns story up to date.
The museum’s Robert Burns Collection is officially recognised as being of national significance as part of the wider collections cared for by the Museums of the Burns Scotland Partnership.

Mauchline Kirkyard
The graveyard contains numerous people who featured in Burns’ life and poetry. Among them are members of his own family, including four of his children and a commemorative plaque marking the resting place of his younger brother, John Burns. Several of his patrons and close associates are also buried here including Gavin Hamilton—one of the most influential supporters in his literary career—and Sir John Whitefoord’s son James, whose family were early patrons of the poet.
Many friends, acquaintances, and local characters immortalised in Burns’ poems can also be found in the old churchyard. These include Willie Patrick, a servant at Mossgiel; Laird McGaun (“Master Tootie”); the outspoken James Humphrey; watchmaker John “Clockie” Brown; and William Fisher, better known as “Holy Willie.” The site also holds figures connected to Burns’ songs and stories, such as Mary Morison, long thought to be the subject of one of his poems, and Robert Wilson, believed to have courted Jean Armour during a period of estrangement from Burns. Collectively, the graves form a trail of people who shaped, inspired, or shared in the poet’s Mauchline years.

The Kilmarnock Edition
Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, also known as the Kilmarnock Edition, is the first edition of Robert Burns' work, published on the 31st July 1786 while Burns was still farming in Ayrshire. Burns arranged to have it printed and published by a local printer, John Wilson who had a press in Kilmarnock. In an early example of crowd funding in 1786, Burns circulated a prospectus inviting friends and patrons to subscribe to the printing of an edition of his poems. Of this first edition, 350 were paid for by subscribers and a total of only 612 were printed altogether.

The printing of the Kilmarnock edition of his poems was a turning point in Burns' life. He abandoned his plans to emigrate to Jamaica and instead spent the next year or so in Edinburgh where he was acclaimed as a poet and welcomed in Edinburgh Society.

Replica Printing Press
If you visit the Dick Institute's South Museum, you can see a replica of the actual press used to publish The Kilmarnock Edition.

McKie Collection
James McKie (sometimes written "M'Kie") was a Kilmarnock-based publisher and collector of Burns material who lived during the 19th century. He gathered a large collection of manuscripts, books, paintings and 'Burnsiana' and was the main fundraiser for the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock's Kay Park. His collection was formerly displayed in a museum in the monument but can now be viewed by appointment at the Dick Institute.