Burns House Museum – the Poet's Mauchline Years
A few hours.
The route
Robert Burns spent some of his most creative years in Mauchline, farming at nearby Mossgiel and writing many of his best-loved poems.
He and Jean Armour lived for a time in a room that is now part of the Burns House Museum. It's a small, friendly museum of his manuscripts and belongings, with Nanse Tinnock's old alehouse in the same visit, and it's all indoors for a wet day in Ayrshire.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
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The day
Mauchline
An hour in the red sandstone house on Castle Street, among the poet's papers and the room where he and Jean Armour lived for a time.
About an hour
Burns House Museum
An attraction
The Burns House Museum is on Castle Street in Mauchline, postcode KA5 5BZ, and the museum says there's car parking nearby. From November to March it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm from Wednesday to Friday and 10am to 4pm at weekends, and it's shut on Mondays and Tuesdays. From April to October it opens every day, 10am to 5pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm at weekends. Burns and Jean Armour lived for a time in a room that is now part of the museum. Around it are original manuscripts, his personal things and other pieces from his Mauchline years, with new work by Scottish artists such as Timorous Beasties and Calum Colvin. The visit includes Nanse Tinnock's, an alehouse Burns knew and wrote about. It now holds the largest public collection of Mauchline Ware, the decorated wooden boxes and souvenirs once made in the town, and old curling stones. There are toilets, but access is limited for wheelchairs, so ring 01290 550045 first. Over Christmas and New Year, check before going.
If it rains
All of it is indoors.