Helen Rose Outdoor Diary: Robert Burns Country

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Helen Rose Outdoor Diary: Robert Burns Country

July, 2025

The Health Culture Rambling Club arranged a circular walk from Alloway which is only just over an hour by bus from Glasgow near the Ayrshire coast. Alloway is famous as the birthplace of Robert Burns, the poet and National Bard for Scotland. The walk started from the National Trust for Scotland Visitor Centre . You can also read the website in Scots!

River Doon

We left the Centre and headed to the Folly with good views all round and over to the bridge at the River Doon known as Brig O’Doon and made famous in Burns’ Tam o’Shanter poem. Also known as the ‘Auld Brig’, Brig o’ Doon is the original 15th-century cobblestone bridge , and it provided the setting for one of Burns’s most famous works. This is the bridge that Tam o’ Shanter raced across on horseback, fleeing from the witches and warlocks (legend tells they’re unable to cross water). The poor mare Meg is not quite as fortunate as Tam and loses her tail. The River Doon is just over 63 kilometres long (including the Loch) and flows north west close t o the town of Dalmellington, through the villages of Patna and Dalrymple before entering the Firth of Clyde just south of Ayr at Alloway.

Folly

In the folly, we saw a depiction of the neighbours sitting drinking as in the Tam O’Shanter.(Read the full Tam O’Shanter poem )The poem perfectly captures a social history of the times but is still as relevant today. Most people remember Burns for Auld Lang Syne which is usually sung at New Year. I have been to Burns Suppers where a guest has recited the entire Tam O’Shanter poem from memory. Burns Suppers are held on 25 January which was the Bard’s birthday

Tam o Shanter Trail

On our walk, we partly followed the Tam O’Shanter Trail signposted with a Bunnet (Scots, derived from bonnet!).

As a slight detour we descended to the river where there was a wonderful smell of wild garlic. Wild garlic can be eaten raw or cooked. All parts of the plant are edible. Although they have a very noticeable garlicky flavour, of course, they are milder than garlic cloves.

On the river there was a crowd of canoeists who disturbed a solitary swan swimming and caused it to take of in flight along the river. They are very noisy flying, rather ungainly like a Jumbo Jet!.

On the Tam O’Shanter trail , even the weather vane on top of the lamp post has a sign of the Drouthy Neebors!

Alloway Auld Kirk

We visited the Auld Kirk, where Robert Burns’ parents are buried. This is a 16th century church ruin. Incidentally, one of his sisters is buried in an old church yard in Pollokshaws, Glasgow as her husband was a Toll Master nearby. Robert Burns is buried at the Burns Mausoleum in St Michaels Churchyard in Dumfries. There were several tour groups in the churchyard led by men in kilts and traditional dress with dirks in their socks. (Sgian Dubh in Scots). A dirk is a type of dagger, often with a straight blade but usually associated with the Scottish Highlands.

Belleisle Park

On to Belleisle Park where the lodge cottage had sculptures at the front door of Atlas holding up the world. I was not sure of the significance but liked them anyway. Belleisle House and Gardens looks are attributed to the Hamiltons of Pinmore, who took over the estate in the late 1700s. They acquired more land for the Estate, and extended the Mansion House.

Rozelle Park

We left Burns country and walked to the coastal trail for lunch before walking to Rozelle Park. There are eleven wicker sculptures in the park which are built on a frame called an aperature. We were disappointed to see that several of them had been subjected to a senseless act of vandalism where the wicker had been set on fire leaving only the metal armature. The photo shows Captain Cook.

The park has WW1-themed sculpture trail in its Remembrance Woodland with many memorials and sculptures of the First World War to recognise the men who had died in the war and were from the local Ayr area. Lieutenant Robert William Shankland received a Victoria Cross. The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom

There were further sculptures in stone from the nearby Old Harbour wall which had been demolished and surprisingly the old stone was not Ayrshire stone. The oldest stone was 470 million years old and they were sculpted by the local Sculptor Ronald Rae and unveiled in 1979

Burns Cottage

After leaving the park, we walked toward the Visitors Centre through Alloway and stopped at the cottage where Robert Burns was born. The last time I visited it, I was seven years old and that was not yesterday! We could not enter as there was an event going on inside.

Murals

Before returning to the Visitors Centre, we walked to the tunnel nearby under the railway to see the murals which are a work in progress by the local community and schools. I particularly liked the mural of the Clydesdale Horses pulling the machinery guided by Robert Burns and incorporating a lovely large ginger cat in the foreground.

A very big thank you to Susan for leading such a lovely and informative walk in dry weather. The walk was 7.7miles long and well worth doing for all the local culture and Burns associations.