Our wonderful site at Robert Burns Birthplace Museum spans roughly ten acres and is made up of three connected elements – Burns Cottage, the Monument Garden and the Birthplace Museum itself. Let’s start with the Cottage where Burns was born. This has a smallholding that we’ve planted as it would have been many years ago by William, Robert’s father, with Ayrshire potatoes, cabbages and kale. And, just behind the Cottage in a field previously grazed by sheep, we’ve created an orchard, a wildlife pond and a woodland walk around the perimeter with nine raised beds in the centre, forming the heart of our community garden.
Moving onto the beautiful Monument Garden, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year and stretches out to overlook Brig o’ Doon, we showcase Burns’ legacy as a nature poet and the natural environment as his muse. Here, our style is fluid rather than formal and, of course, roses feature prominently. During lockdown, we were invaded by rabbits and as we replace the roses they destroyed, we’re also introducing wilder varieties, ones that Burns would been familiar with. We’re carefully placing those wild roses in an historical context with grasses and other local plant species, native but cultivated. We want this to be the landscape that Burns would have recognised as his own.