Scottish Poetry, Scottish Literature, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott

Dumfries & Galloway and Alloway Ayrshire- Robert Burns

"Man to man the world over, Shall brothers be for all that". Robert Burns (1759-96) is Scotland's national poet, and his poetry remains internationally acclaimed today. His songs are inscribed in traditions, for example Auld Lang Syne is belted out across the world every New Years Eve at Midnight and was written by Burns. Patriot, poet of the people, apprentice to the Scottish Enlightenment, a follower of the Scottish folklore tradition, philanderer, farmer, Freemason and supporter of the French Revolution - Burns was all of these and he filled his poetry with the everyday lives of ordinary Scots.

Dumfries is an important centre on the Robert Burns Scotland trail. Burns died here in 1796 of rheumatic heart disease. The house where he died is now a museum celebrating his life and poetry - Burns House (see below). Dumfries pays due homage to Scotland's National poet with a Burns Centre, a Burns statue, exhibits at the two houses where he lived whilst in the area (Burns House and Ellisland Farm - he wrote numerous poems and songs in both these properties) and the Globe Inn, Burns' favourite tavern in Dumfries survives still today as both working real ale pub and Burns tour centre. The Globe is also the oldest tavern in Scotland dating as it does from 1610, and pretty much as it was in Burns' day.

Alloway just south of Ayr is all things Robert Burns, as you'd expect in the village where Scotland's official national poet was born. The Burns National Heritage Park in Alloway is a mecca for Burns fans. Within the Burns Heritage Park sits Burns Cottage where the poet was born and the adjacent superb Burns Museum with its huge Burns archive which includes original letters, manuscripts and journels kept by Burns. A visit here to Alloway gives a real sense of the early influences on Burns, and the formation of his accessible humanity and human comradeship.

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Thomas Carlyle & Hugh MacDiarmid - Dumfries & Galloway

Thomas Carlyle, who's birthplace home now museum is at Ecclefechan near Lockerbie in Dumfries & Galloway, is an interesting character. Credited often as the forerunner to socialist thought, although his later writings moved wildly adrift more akin to fascism, Carlyle was born in this house in Ecclefechan in 1795. Inside today you can view a selection of his personal items and a collection of portraits. Little has changed here since the house opened in 1883.

As you drive into Langholm you'll notice a sign proudly proclaiming itself as the birthplace of Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978). MacDiarmid, born Christopher Murray Grieve in Langholm on 11th August 1892, is an important poet to Scotland, credited as instigating a renaissance in Scottish poetry between the World Wars and a founder member of the National Party of Scotland, now the Scottish National Party (SNP). His early work, 'The Scottish Chapbook' is a clear belief in a Scottish Literary Renaissance, with motto 'Not Traditions-Precedents'. MacDiarmid reintroduced the idea of poet as transformer of society. He took on his alter-ego pseudonym - Hugh MacDiarmid in 1922.

His influences were wide and his politics radical - he inherited much of his strong independence from his postman father and was a member of both the Scottish National Party and the Communist Party. His fierce independence saw him expelled from both in the 1930s then unlike most who left the Communist Party after 1956 and the horrors of Hungry, he actually rejoined the party. Influences included James Joyce, and Communist sympathisers Auden and Spender. Some of his poetry was written in the Scots language - Water Music is a prime example and a simultaneous ode to James Joyce, others in English like 'Facing the Chair' - "I think again of men as innocent as I am Pent in a cold unjust walk between steel bars, .. Because of the unconcern of men and women, Respectable and respected and professedly Christian, .. And I am suddenly completely bereft Of la grande amitie des choses crees, The unity of life which can only be forged by love".

Although like Robert Burns his poetry drew on the Scots language, he was critical of the sentimentalism within Scotland for Burns which he thought restricted the growth of new Scottish poetic drive. Financial fortune, as with Burns, alluded him through his life and he died in Biggar in 1978 and is buried in Langholm. Langholm's memorial to MacDiarmid, a huge open book sculpture of steel and bronze, sits just to the North of Langholm just off the A7 on the Newcastleton road 2 miles on.

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Sir Walter Scott & Abbotsford, Scottish Borders

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) is one of the great names in Scottish Literature, and Abbotsford, his historic home just outside Melrose is a pilgrimage for Walter Scott fans from all over the world. Abbotsford, the small Borders farmhouse which Scott had redesigned and extensively added too, sparing no expense opened its doors to the public just a few months after Scott died in 1832. Little has changed since then.

The influence of Scottish 19th century author and poet Sir Walter Scott stretches far beyond Scotland. Classic Scott novels such as Rob Roy, Waverley and Old Mortality brought key events in Scottish history like the Jacobite cause to the world's attention.

Walter Scott spent six years working on the building of Abbotsford, the attention to antiquarian detail and comfort here including wood panelling and Japanese styled wallpaper is a fascinating insight into the author. Much work was undertaken by local craftsman. Abbotsford has been open to the public since 1833, just 5 months after Scott's death, and visitors from all over the world continue to visit in their droves, a testament to Scott's longevity.

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The Writers Museum, Edinburgh

The Writers Museum on Lawnmarket has particularly good collections on Scottish poet Robert Burns and Scottish literary figures Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Burns fans can revel in the viewing of his writing desk housed here in the Writers' Museum whilst Scott memorabilia includes his chessboard, printing press and dining table.

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The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan & the John Buchan Centre

"To left and right were roundshouldered green hills as smooth as pancakes, but to the south - there was a glimpse of high heathery mountains .. I was on the central boss of a huge upland country, and could see everything moving for miles. In the meadows below the road .. a cottage smoked, but it was the only sign of human life. Otherwise there was only the calling of plovers and the tinkling of little streams". (John Buchan, The Thirty Nine Steps).

John Buchan is best known still for his 1914 novel 'The Thirty Nine Steps', later made even more legendary by the Hitchcock film 'The 39 Steps' (the best of a selection of filmic versions). What you don't get in the films however, which you get in detail in the book, is the moving descriptions of the southern uplands around the northern Scottish Borders, and indeed the east Dumfries and Galloway Annandale vale.

Richard Hannay, the key character fleeing several predators in 'The Thirty Nine Steps' moves around this part of Scotland, which Buchan knew well and which he never forgot, despite his extensive travels. 'The Thirty Nine Steps' stands still as a superb and unputdownable thriller.

There's much more to say however about John Buchan, who had written 16 published works prior to the Thirty Nine Steps which became so popular. In the long list of Buchan's career you can add diplomat, soldier, historian (he wrote epics on 'The Great War' and 'Sir Walter Scott' as well as 'Montrose, Lord Tweedsmuir Governer General of Canada in 1935, war correspondent and Director of Reuters'. Born in Broughton, which is now home to the John Buchan Centre where you can see a host of photographs, publications of his works and a comprehensive guide to his life, John Buchan (1875-194) certainly liked to write! Out of over 100 publications, 40 were fiction, many were biographies or specialist texts such as 'The Law according to the Taxation of Foreign Income'. During his time in Canada he travelled extensively and was a major player in committing Canada to the Second World War just prior to his death in 1940. Find out more about John Buchan via the John Buchan Society's website right, and at the centre in Broughton. The aptly named John Buchan Way winding from Broughton to Peebles stretches for 13 miles and was recently opened in Spring 2003.

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George Mackay Brown Stromness Orkney

The poet and dramatist George Mackay Brown lived in Stromness, Mainland Orkney for the last twenty years of his life in a building diagonally opposite the museum, commemorated by a Blue Plague.

Brown is considered to be one of Scotland's great 20th century poets who drew much inspiration from the Orkney Islands. His novel Magnus was heavily influenced by the Orkeyinga Saga.

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