Robert Burns House, Dumfries

Robert Burns House has welcomed visitors for over 170 years. Robert Burns died here on 21 July 1796 and since then it has become a focus for people travelling to Dumfries. Jean Armour Burns, wife of Robert Burns, continued to live in the family home and by the time of her own death in 1834, the house was a place of pilgrimage. Here you will find many treasures gathered.

Visitors can see examples of all the editions of Robert Burns' poetry which were published in his lifetime, the Kilmarnock, Edinburgh, London, Dublin and Belfast editions.

The silver snuffbox (pictured) in the Parlour, was a gift to Robert Burns on his birthday in 1787 from his friend and patron, James Cunningham, 13th Earl of Glencairn. It was a particularly generous gift and was probably Robert Burns' most valued possession. On the base of the snuff box Burns has inscribed, "Presented by my highly esteemed patron and benefactor, The Earl of Glencairn 25th January AD 1787 Robt. Burns" and he has added a Latin phrase meaning, "His reward is with the highest"

The inkwell in the same display, was fashioned from a pony hoof. Robert Burns gave it to his friend and mentor, John Lapraik, in 1793. Lapraik was a farmer and fellow poet who befriended Burns and encouraged him to write in his early years.

Burns commenced his duties as an Excise Officer in September 1789. He received £50 per year plus £50 per smuggler arrested and a share in any goods confiscated. Some Excise records for 1791 are on display and include Robert Burns in the list of Excise Officers in the "Scheme of District". At this time Burns was working in the First Dumfries or "Port" Division and his duties no longer involved long and arduous journeys into Nithsdale. The records include a Comparison of Accounts for Dumfries, Lochmaben and Sanquhar and a Scheme of Arrears, Seizures and Frauds.

Close by is Burns’ gun - a four-bore flintlock carbine. It would fire a lead ball weighing a quarter of a pound or 113 grams. It was made in 1790 by John Probin, of London and Birmingham, gunmaker to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. Burns would have carried this gun in the course of his duties as an Excise Officer. He would also have taken his measuring or gauging rod. This is a stick marked with various scales for measuring the quantity of beer and wine in barrels.

Robert Burns House also displays many of Jean Armour’s personal belongings including a miniature portrait of Robert Burns. The likeness was taken from a portrait of Burns painted by Alexander Nasmyth in 1787 and it was most probably made as a memento for his widow. The drawing, of watercolour on ivory, is well executed, and would have been a cherished possession.

In the Parlour is a small edition of The Bible. It belonged to Jean and includes the signature, "Jean Burns" is on the title page. It is dated 1794, when she would have been 29 years old.

Her recipe book, "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy" is close by (pictured). Jean is recorded as describing Burns' taste in food thus, "At all meals he had a book beside him on the table. He was fond of plain things and hated tarts, pies and puddings."

In the cabinet is a fine china bowl which Robert Burns and his family used. Jean later gave it to James Adair, the Excise Officer who took over Burns' duties after his death in 1796. Adair had taken lodgings with the Burns family, and on his departure from the town; Jean gave him this bowl, remarking that she now had nothing left worth giving away except herself.

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