Robert Burns at Mossgiel
Scotland’s national poet lived and farmed at Mossgiel Farm from 1784 to 1786.
The land, people and farming life around Mauchline became part of one of the most productive periods of his writing.
Burns on farming at Mossgiel
“I read farming books; I calculated crops; I attended markets; and in short, in spite of ‘The Devil, the world and the Flesh’, I believe I would have been a wise man; but the first year from unfortunately buying in bad seed, the second from a late harvest, we lost half of both our crops: this overset all my wisdom… My brother wanted my hare brained imagination, as well as my social and amorous madness, but in good sense and every sober qualification he was far my superiour.”
Robert Burns, writing to Dr Moore
Works written while Burns was at Mossgiel
Explore the poems and works associated with Burns’s time farming the fields of Mossgiel.
- The Vision
- Address to the Unco Guid
- Epistles to J. Lapraik
- Hallowe’en
- The Jolly Beggars
- The Cotter’s Saturday Night
- The Ordination
- The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer
- Address to the Deil
- The Holy Fair
- Holy Willie’s Prayer
- Death and Dr Hornbook
- Scotch Drink
- The Twa Dogs
- To a Mouse
Mossgiel is still a working farm, carrying its history into the future.