Anthem to Friendship fronts membership drive for Robert Burns’s riverside home
Lovers of Auld Lang Syne are being asked to lend a hand to the birthplace of the New Year song.
Ellisland Farm, where the poet Robert Burns wrote the anthem to love and friendship, is launching a campaign to help restore the farmhouse he designed as his first marital home with Jean Armour.
The “Auld Lang Syne Campaign” seeks to recruit members to the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust which took over the site at the height of the pandemic and is currently battling to safeguard the buildings and collection of items belonging to Burns and Jean.
The trust believes the sentiments of the song – which is sung around the world at New Year – most famously in New York’s Times Square – is particularly fitting now when so many friends and family are apart.
Ellisland has changed little since Robert Burns’s time. It is known as “the poet’s choice” because Burns picked it on the basis of its beautiful river views, despite the unproductive land. Visitors can walk the same riverside paths where the poet wrote many of his most famous works. The campaign and membership drive will run throughout the coming year culminating in Hogmanay 2021.
The campaign will kick off officially on 22 January at a virtual concert internationally celebrated singer Emily Smith, who is a trustee, supported by Ellisland’s youth ambassador Rose Byers. Burns’s Clubs who are members of the “Ellisland 1788 Circle” will contribute to the event.
Chair of the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust, Joan McAlpine MSP said:
“Millions of people sing Auld Lang Syne with gusto all year round although saying goodbye to 2020 is particularly sweet. Most who sing it know little of the origins of the song or the beautiful place which inspired it. Now Ellisland is in need of a little love and friendship itself – so we want people, in the words of the song, to “gie a haun” to the farm and museum.
“The homestead requires significant investment to deal with dampness and structural issues. We also want to sensitively restore and repurpose the outhouses, courtyard and barn and make the wonderful walks more accessible. Then more people can come and fall in love with Ellisland, just as Rab and Jean did.
Members can sign up to the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust for as little as £15 a year here https://www.ellislandfarm.co.uk/membership/
