SERVICE ABOVE SELF


FEBRUARY 2021 : ISSUE 142


meeting of the 26th January, members’ curiosity was piqued by the title “Rockstar Poet on Tour”. Entering into the spirit of the evening, there was a good turnout of members sporting various forms of tartan and some with a wee dram to celebrate. The evening opened with a rendition of ‘Rantin’, Rovin’ Robin’, from member Mike Dow who accompanied himself on his guitar and was fol lowed by a presentation by member Wilda McKinnon looking at some of Robert Burns’ Tours of Scotland in 1787 when he was 28 years old. The first tour in the month of May was to the Scottish Borders and the North of England taking in Melrose, Jedburgh, Berwick, Newcastle, Annan and Dumfries and many others. In June, he then toured the West of Scotland reaching Inveraray, via Dumbarton and Arrochar, before sailing from there to Greenock. He visited Inveraray Castle but as the Duke was on his travels he was refused entry. This led him to scratch


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s with everything this year, an alternative to the usual Burns’ Supper was found and, for our


the following lines into a window in the Inn at Inveraray. He wrote: “Whoe’er he be that sojourns here, I pity much his case, Unless he comes to wait upon The Lord their God, His Grace. There’s naething here but Highland pride, and Highland scab and hunger. If Providence has sent me here, ‘twas surely in his anger.” From mid August to mid September, Burns toured the North East of Scotland, staying with the Duke and Duchess of Atholl at Blair Castle and Duke and Duchess of Gordon at Castle Gordon. He visited the battlefield at Culloden and Cawdor Castle. During his travels he composed many songs such as The Birks O’ Aberfeldy, and during his Tour of the North East, discovered his east coast heritage, visiting relatives in Stonehaven and Laurencekirk. The evening finished with Mike Dow singing Auld Lang Syne to the original tune which we often hear Eddi Reader sing. Wilda was thanked for a different kind Immortal Memory and all her hard work.


The Tour of the North East of Scotland from a map held in the National Library of Scotland.


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