Prize-winning young reciters from schools across Dumfries and Galloway have lent their voices to a new poetry trail at Ellisland Museum and Farm by recording poems Robert Burns wrote during the years he spent there.
The recordings have been made by Gold and Silver Medal Recitation winners from the 2026 Dumfries and Galloway Burns Association Schools Competition. Among the pupils taking part are Kathryn Wilson of Moffat Academy, Rhona Keenan and Ella McTeir of Wallace Hall Academy, and Amilia Wark and Keegan Shaw of Sanquhar Academy.
Each was invited to record a poem after being recognised for their success in this year’s schools competition, and visitors can now hear them at five locations around the historic farm by scanning QR codes on their phones.
It means that visitors following the trail can hear performances of works written during Burns’s time at Ellisland, including Tam o Shanter and On Seeing a Wounded Hare, while standing in the landscape where the poet lived, worked and wrote.
Katie McDonald, Project Officer for the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust, said: “The young people who took part brought real warmth and character to these recordings. Every one of them came to us through this year’s schools competition, and we wanted to give their talent the wider audience it deserves. There is something really special about hearing local pupils recite these poems on the ground where Burns first wrote them.”
Burns spent three years at Ellisland with his wife Jean Armour and their family, writing more than a quarter of his lifetime’s output while farming the land beside the River Nith. Today, Ellisland is at the centre of the Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne campaign, a major programme of conservation, research and public engagement that aims to restore Burns’s historic home, reveal new insights into his life and work, and create new opportunities for people to engage with his legacy.
The Poetry Trail forms part of that wider work, creating another way for local people and visitors to connect with Burns’s story through the place that inspired some of his best-known writing.
Joan McAlpine, Project Director, said: “Burns belongs to the young people of Dumfries and Galloway as much as to anyone, and the Dumfries and Galloway Burns Association Schools Competition does invaluable work in passing that inheritance on.
“Everyone involved in nurturing these young reciters deserves great credit. The Poetry Trail lets their achievement reach every visitor who visits Ellisland, and it reflects what the Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne campaign is working towards; an Ellisland that is a living part of this community’s cultural life, not only a record of its past.”
The Poetry Trail was created by Ellisland Museum & Farm, working with Oasis Youthwork and the Dumfries and Galloway Burns Association. The project was supported by the Holywood Trust and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
It is now available to all visitors and can be accessed throughout the museum and farm grounds during opening hours. By combining traditional recitation with digital technology, the trail creates a direct connection between Burns’s words and the young people who continue to engage with them today. From celebrated works such as Tam o Shanter to lesser-known poems written during his years at Ellisland, the recordings offer visitors a fresh way to experience Burns in the place that inspired his writing.
The project joins a busy summer programme at Ellisland which includes guided tours, family activities, special events and opportunities to explore the farmhouse, collections and landscape associated with Scotland’s National Bard.
One partner. No competitors. Full visibility across the region.
