Burns' Farm At Ellisland, On The River Nith, Near Dumfries

A steel plate engraving of the Ellisland Farm where Robert Burns and his family lived.   The first centenary of the birth of Robert Burns was commemorated on the 25th of January 1859. The celebrations were instigated by Dumfries Burns Club but the Town Council of Dumfries and townspeople in general combined to make the celebrations an impressive event.   This engraving is taken from the report of the events carried by the "Illustrated London News". It shows the farmhouse at Ellisland. Robert Burns took on the lease of Ellisland Farm from Patrick Miller of Dalswinton from Whitsunday 1788 for a rent of £50 per year. It was a small unimproved holding of 170 acres situated on the bank of the River Nith about 5 miles north of the town of Dumfries. Miller gave Burns £300 with which to build a farm house and enclose the fields.   The five bedroomed farmhouse which was built to Burns' instructions was designed by Thomas Boyd, a Dumfries architect. It is still  as it was in Burns' time, although the steadings have been much remodelled. In 1929 the farm was presented to the nation by John Wilson Williamson. It is now a museum.