Robert
Burns, Scotland's National Bard and the Poet of Humanity, spent
three of the most fruitful years of his short life at Ellisland
Farm, Dumfries. 
Robert
Burns took up the lease of the farm at Whitsun 1788 but did
not begin farming till 11th June that year. Thither he brought
his wife Jean Armour, and his two year-old son Robert the
following December.
Sons
Francis Wallace and William Nicol were born at Ellisland Farm,
and their half-sister Betty (fathered by the poet on Helen
Anne Park of Dumfries) spent the first months of her life
there too.
The
stony, infertile, poorly dressed and badly drained ground
of Ellisland Farm turned out to be a ruinous bargain for Robert
Burns who switched from arable farming to dairying and then
decided to give up the land altogether as his career in the
Excise looked more promising. At Martinmas (11th November)
1791 the Burns family left Ellisland Farm and moved into the
town of Dumfries six miles away.
The farm extends to 170 acres. It had an orchard and Robert
Burns had 9 or 10 cows, including 3 fine Ayrshire cows; 4
horses and some sheep. The Ayrshire dairying system was introduced
and cheese including ewe-milk cheese was made. Crops such
as oats were grown, but while it seems a large farm it was
ill-drained as well as hungry and soft of lime. Dykes had
to be built, the farmhouse was under construction and everything
required manual labour. The output of such a farm is very
limited compared with present levels. Keeping cattle over
the winter without silage, modern types of turnips, large
stores of straw or hay was a major problem which limited herd
size. Even the hens would have had a hard time in the winter.
Robert Burns described Ellisland Farm as "the poet's
choice" of the farms he was offered by Patrick Miller,
his landlord. What he meant was literally that here he could
find inspiration whereas he felt the other farms lacked soul.
|
