Dumfries

On the Burns trail in Dumfries

Burns’ House

Simple sandstone building where the poet died of rheumatic heart disease in 1796, a few days before the birth of his last son, Maxwell. Inside, one of the bedroom windows bears his signature, scratched with his diamond ring.

Burns Statue

Presiding over a roundabout, this sentimental piece of Victorian frippery in white Carrara marble features the great man holding a posy. His faithful hound, Luath, lies curled around his feet.

Midsteeple

Burns’ body lay in state here, in Dumfries’ most singular building, a wonky hotchpotch of a place built in 1707 to fulfil the multiple functions of prison, clocktower, courthouse and arsenal.

Robert Burns Centre (RBC)

A free exhibition on the poet’s years in Dumfries plus an optional 20min slide show (£2).

St Michael’s Church

Originally buried in a simple grave near St Michael’s Church, in 1815 Burns was dug up and moved across the graveyard to a purpose-built mausoleum, a Neoclassical eyesore which houses a statue of him being accosted by the Poetic Muse.