RABBIE Burns’s old farm, where the national bard recorded Auld Lang Syne, is celebrating being officially accredited as a museum.
The A-listed Ellisland farm, which the poet built on the banks of the River Nith near Dumfries for in 1788, will be eligible for grants it was previously excluded from thanks to its new status.
The accreditation comes three years after The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust was formed to take control of the site.
Staff have been congratulated on their “intensive” efforts to improve the care of the collection, documentation systems and security procedures.
The musuem is considered Burns’s most authentic home and safeguards artefacts such as the poet’s fishing rod, flute, school books and manuscripts, including The Whistle and Wounded Hare.
Caitlin MacLeod, the museum’s education and development lead, said: “This is a huge achievement for the team at Ellisland including staff, trustees and volunteers. Being awarded museum status is the culmination of three years of hard work. We are very grateful to the funders whose support helped us achieve this.
“Accreditation means Ellisland will continue to play an important part in both local and national heritage in the future. The recognition comes with lots of advice on how to keep improving, so the hard work will continue.”
Joan McAlpine, Robert Burns Ellisland Trust’s project director, praised MacLeod’s hard work in particular.
She said: "The trust has come so far since taking over Ellisland in the most difficult of circumstances.
“This is a great acknowledgement of the hard work of our team, especially Caitlin who came to us as an intern from the Museum Education postgraduate at the University of Glasgow and is now our museum lead."
Ellisland, which is part of the Burns Scotland network, said it now aims to have the collection recognised for its national significance.
The trust said that support from the Holywood Trust and Museums Galleries Scotland allowed Ellisland to employ staff to work on the accreditation submission.
According to the National Trust for Scotland, Auld Lang Syne is not an original work by Robert Burns. Instead, the bard said it was an “old song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, untill I took it down from an old man’s singing”.
He first put it to paper in 1788, the same year Ellisland was built. He later reworked it and sent it to be published in “A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice” in 1793.
Burns lived at Ellisland from 1788 to 1791.
