Robert Burns Website
VisitScotland have launched a website on Robert Burns for Tourists.
Robert Burns, the best selling poet ever, now has a new website thanks to Scotland's tourist organisation VisitScotland.
Robert Burns was born in a small thatched cottage in Alloway, a village near the Scottish market town of Ayr, on January 25 January 1760 and died in Dumfries on July 21, 1796.
His father was a gardener and a tenant farmer. Burns is occasionally referred to as ‘The Ploughman Poet’ but that is just romantic nonsense. Following the publication of his first volume of poetry he was able to afford the lease on the farm of Ellisland near Dumfries and became a tenant farmer. The farm turned out to be poor and Burns was obliged to take paid employment as an Excise man to make ends meet. Poor health brought on by harsh living and working conditions resulted in his death at the age of 36.
In his short life Burns produced a considerable output including classic poems like ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ and ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’, the poignant love song ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ and that humorous dig at his colleagues ‘ The Deil’s Awa Wi’ the Exciseman’.
But it was perhaps for his work as a collector of songs that he should best be remembered. First as a contributor then Editor in all but name to James Johnson’s ‘Scots Musical Museum’ Burns single handed rescued a vast quantity of old Scots songs that would otherwise have been lost.
Some were his own compositions, some were fragments that he restored and added verses too. The rest were collected from old singers and included that universal anthem of parting ‘Auld Lang Syne’ which Burns described as an ‘old song of the olden times, & which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man’s singing;’
The new website will give visitors the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Scotland’s Bard, host the perfect Burns Supper and the chance to vote for your favourite Burns poem or song.
The key features of the new site are:
- An interactive map highlighting areas in Dumfries & Galloway, Ayrshire and Edinburgh where Burns lived, loved and penned his most famous works.
- The Burns Supper Starter Kit with top tips on what to serve up and tips for creating humorous toasts.
- A Burns Timeline, detailing the key milestones in the Bards life.
A second phase will be added in April and will include translations of Burns most famous work and a fully interactive kids zone where young visitors can post their own photos and poems. There will also be an events section which will feature the ‘Burns an’ a’ that! Festival’ which takes place 23 – 28 May 2007 and a look forward to the Homecoming 2009 celebrations.
According to Yvette Kerr, Culture Product Manager at VisitScotland ‘The aim of the new Burns website is to encourage people to travel around Scotland and explore the places that inspired Robert Burns. The website is key to promoting one of the main pillars for Homecoming 2009. The year long celebration of Scotland’s world-changing past, vibrant present and inspiring future is deliberately timed to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Burns.’
