IT is the place where he set up home with the young Jean Armour, and parts of her stove remain in the cottage kitchen.
But the charity running one of the most important Robert Burns sites in Scotland has warned it will close for good without urgent funds to help maintain the site.
Ellisland farm, the Bard’s first home with Jean, sits on the banks of the River Nith near Dumfries and inspired work such as Tam o’ Shanter and Auld Lang Syne.
But the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust, which took over from the former Ellisland Trust in April, has discovered all the former charity’s reserves were spent and it had a large annual deficit.
The new board of trustees are taking steps to put the trust into the black, including the early termination of the contract of a temporary curator but have warned the site will close and the collection sold off if they fail to raise funds.
A major fund-raising drive has been launched and they are looking to recruit additional volunteers and new sources of income to keep the site open for events when Covid restrictions are lifted.
Joan McAlpine MSP, the chair of the new board of trustees, said: “Charity law means that any organisation facing a deficit it cannot fund must wind up. That is what we face if we ignore the financial crisis we have inherited.
“Winding up Ellisland would mean selling the collection, the farmhouse buildings and the land. That is unthinkable. Ellisland was designed by Burns and has stood since 1788. Preserving it is our priority.”
She continued: “We want Ellisland to be at the centre of cultural community activity in Dumfries and Galloway, which is already working on a joined-up Burns tourism offering. We also recognise its vital educational role and the opportunities for outdoor and environmental education, given the beautiful riverside walks. It must also be protected and cared for properly.”
Many of Robert Burns’s best-known works were written at Ellisland, including his masterpiece Tam o’ Shanter.
Also written at his desk overlooking the Nith, which is still there today, were his songs Ye Banks and Braes o Bonnie Doon and his version of Auld Lang Syne, which continues to be sung across the world to this day.
His personal experiences while at Ellisland inspired him directly, such as the tragic Address to a Wounded Hare and comical Willie Brew’d a Peck o’ Maut and Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare.
But despite the rich heritage and artefacts of national importance, Ellisland has never been granted museum status, a significant development that is being explored so the new trustees can access more funding opportunities.
It is estimated that Ellisland makes a loss of around £15,000 a year and all cash reserves have been spent which leaves the future of the site in serious doubt.
Trustees are warning that the land and buildings will need to be sold unless more cash is urgently found. The numbers of members and volunteers has also slumped so a major new drive has been launched to recruit more.
Professor Gerard Carruthers, director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at Glasgow University and one of the new trustees at Ellisland, said site was unique.
He said: “We are confident that we can make a success of Ellisland as it is a very special place.
“An online seminar I hosted recently called Burns@ellisland attracted 123 attendees from around the world and resulted in Ellisland growing its membership by a quarter.
“Or priority is to make the site sustainable in the short term by eliminating the deficit then developing it sensitively.
The songs Burns wrote and collected at Ellisland mean future developments can built that musical heritage.”
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