Burns Cottage
Burns Cottage Burns Cottage within Scotland
General information
Type	Cottage
Location	16 Alloway
Town or city	Ayr
Country	Scotland
Coordinates	55°25′58″N 04°38′06″W / 55.43278°N 4.63500°W / 55.43278; -4.63500
Elevation	23m
Completed	1757

Burns Cottage, the first home of Robert Burns, in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland was built by his father, William Burnes in 1757. Burns, Scotland's national poet, was born there on 25 January 1759. It is a four-roomed clay and thatch cottage and has been fully restored to become part of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.

History

The cottage has had a number of uses, including a spell as a pub, run by a Mr Goudie from Riccarton who saw the opportunity to exploit Burns's developing reputation.^[a] At first therefore the cottage was not greatly valued. The Suffragettes recognised its importance, having once endeavoured to set the cottage alight.^[2]

In 1818, the English poet John Keats took a trip to Scotland to visit the home, years after Burns' death in 1796. Before Keats arrived, he wrote to a friend that "one of the pleasantest means of annulling self is approaching such a shrine as the cottage of Burns – we need not think of his misery – that is all gone – bad luck to it – I shall look upon it all with unmixed pleasure."^[3] but his encounter with the cottage's alcoholic custodian returned him to thoughts of misery.^[4]

Pictures

• 
  Oldest known engraving, 1805
• 
  Bedroom
• 
  Kitchen
• 
  Plan and Elevation view
• 
  Cross section
• 
  View of cottage with an addition, torn down in 1902
• 
  Back of cottage in 1904, showing then-new museum building
• 
  Interior of museum, 1904