Gifts for the future that make a real and lasting difference to the environment.
Robert Burns became well acquainted with New Cumnock and its environs as he travelled back and forth between Mauchline and Ellisland in the closing years of the 1780’s as he set up a new home for him and his family. The inns at what are now the Old Mill Farm and the Castle Hotel in the village provided convenient stopping off places to feed and water his ‘old mare Jenny Geddes’ and to put pen to paper, to compose ‘Ode sacred to the memory of Mrs Oswald of Auchincruive’ and ‘Of A’ the Airts’.
Corsencon hill overlooking the River Nith, in the east of the parish on the Ayrshire-Dumfriesshire boundary symbolised the break Burns was about to make with his native county. His thoughts on these journeys turned to his wife Jean Armour, back home in Mauchline awaiting the move to Ellisland and inspired one of his finest works ‘O were I on Parnassus hill’ -
“O, were I on Parnassus hill,
Or had o’ Helicon my fill,
That I might catch poetic skill
To sing how dear I love thee!
But Nith maun be my Muse’s well,
My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’,
On Corsincon I’ll glow’r and spell,
And write how dear I love thee”
Rabbie formed a lasting friendship with John Logan who lived at Laight House, in the lower reaches of Glen Afton, who had promoted the Bard’s Kilmarnock Edition of poems (1786) and secured some twenty-two subscriptions. Further up the glen at Pencloe lived Thomas Campbell of whom Burns wrote ‘I have met a few men in my life whom I wished more to see again than you’. Less charitable was his views on James Young, who like many other parish ministers of Ayrshire, suffered caustic Burns in ‘The Kirk’s Alarm’, the bard’s satirical attack on the church.
At the beginning of 18th century the Glen Afton lands had been held by the Gordon’s of Earlston and Afton, who later acquired the property of Stair on the banks of the River Ayr. It was here that Burns first met the Gordon heiress, Mrs. General Stewart and in 1786 sent her ‘a parcel of songs’, now known as the ‘The Stair Manuscripts’ which included the ‘The Lass of Ballochmyle”. Five years later Rabbie sent her some more -“To Mrs. General Stewart of Afton, The first person of her sex and rank that patronised his humble lays , this manuscript collection of Poems is presented with the sincerest emotion of greatest respect, by the Author’. This collection, ‘The Afton Manuscripts” included ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ and ‘Sweet Afton’.
The splendour of Glen Afton had of course come to Rabbie’s attention while visiting his friend John Logan at Laight. ‘There is a small river, Afton, that falls into the Nith, near New Cumnock, which has some charming, wild, romantic scenery on its banks’ he wrote to his patron, Mrs Dunlop. It inspired his magical ‘Sweet Afton”, the opening verse bringing together love, landscape and song – Burns at his best.
“Flow gently, sweet Afton among thy green braes!
Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise!
My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream-
Flow gently, sweet Afton disturb not her dream!”
Between the Afton Water and Laight Farm, New Cumnock Burns Club, erected the splendid Burns Cairn and garden for visitors to enjoy the fine scenery and pleasant bird song. A few miles journey up the glen and the visitor is greeted with spectacular views as the Afton Water flows gently through the hills that gave refuge to Wallace and Bruce – ‘Scots Wha Hae’!
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