• The Alloway Burns Club welcomes you
    • The Burns' Monument, Alloway
    • Alloway’s Auld and Haunted Kirk
    • The Auld Brig O’ Doon
    • Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
      And win the key-stane o' the brig;
      There at them thou thy tail may toss,
      A running stream they dare na cross.

 OUR 3 MAIN AIMS

We take our aims very seriously at the Alloway Burns Club


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Number 1

study

To encourage the study of the Life and Works of Robert Burns and of Scottish Literature

Number 2

commemorate

To commemorate the significant dates associated with Robert Burns

Number 3

encourage

To actively seek and encourage new members to join Alloway Burns Club

To download a copy of our complete constitution in .pdf format click  

"What does Robert Burns mean to you?" ... Here is what some of our members said

Allister Anderson
He is a consistent feature in my consideration of Scots poetry and a reliable companion for judgement of old and and new poetry.
Martin Cassidy
Burns is the best poet ever. He has had a remarkable impact on me both as a boy and as a man. I love his songs and poems. “Epistle To A Young Friend” particularly strikes a chord.
Liz Challis
Reading his poetry and the story of his life fills me with emotion. What a man!
Bill Duncan
I feel richer knowing Burns. I have a wealth of friends with a like interest. I know I am better off having gained some knowledge of the bard.
Andy Moynihan
Friendship ‐ on your Burns’ journey, you will meet many interesting people and see Burns through their enthusiasm.
Ishbel Murnin
I was brought up with Robert Burns. I went to Alloway School and we had his songs and poems. He has been in my life for a very long time.
Ramsay Syme
Burns means a lot to me personally as I enjoy singing songs like “Red, Red Rose”, “Corn Rigs”, “Ae Fond Kiss” and “The Star O’ Rabbie Burns”. I was fortunate enough to hear someone singing “Tam O’ Shanter” at Ayr Town Hall recently in “Robert Burns the Musical”. At school, at the age of ten, I recited “A Man’s A Man” and that inspired me to go on to other things.
Ann Vance
He was a great man of the people and I love his observation of human nature. I also like the fact he was a local man loved by all nations.

THE BARD'S TOP 10 WORKS      (According to our member poll in 2016)

THE PROCESS

A comparison of Burns’ works is an impossible task but, we're sure you'll agree, we all have our own particular favourites.

We asked our members to let us know their top 3 of Burns’ works in order of personal preference.

We awarded 3 points for their first choice, 2 points for their second and 1 point for their final choice. The results were collated and added together to produce our list.

ABOUT TAM O' SHANTER

It is really not surprising that “Tam O’ Shanter” was chosen as Alloway Burns Club’s favourite piece of the Bard’s writing as it is in many respects Alloway’s “own poem”. Most of the action, after Tam leaves the hostelry in Ayr is set in the village and many of the locations mentioned in the poem can still be visited particularly the Auld Kirk and the Brig O’ Doon.

“When glimering thro’ the groaning trees
Kirk-Alloway seem’d in a bleeze,”

A diligent investigator will also find the location of Mungo’s Well (marked with a sign erected by the Club on the cycle path to Doonfoot) and the Cairn.

“And thro’ the whins, and by the cairn,
Where hunters fand the murder’d bairn;
And near the thorn, aboon the well,
Where Mungo’s mither hang’d hersel.”

Many street names in Alloway are taken from the poem and the wind vanes along the Poet’s Path depict the main events in the poem. However the influence of this poem goes further. Players in our local football team, Ayr United, are known as the “Honest Men” from the line;

“Auld Ayr, whom ne’er a town surpasses
For honest men and bonie lasses.”

So, for these reasons, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that “Tam O’ Shanter” was voted our number 1.

Let us know what your number 1 would have been, and why?

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