The cottage has had a number of uses, including a spell as a pub, run by a Mr Goudie from Riccarton who saw the opportunity to exploit Burns's developing reputation.[a]
At first therefore the cottage was not greatly valued. The Suffragettes recognised its importance, having once endeavoured to set the cottage alight.[2]
In 1818, the English poet John Keats took a trip to Scotland to visit the home, years after Burns' death in 1796. Before Keats arrived, he wrote to a friend that "one of the pleasantest means of annulling self is approaching such a shrine as the cottage of Burns – we need not think of his misery – that is all gone – bad luck to it – I shall look upon it all with unmixed pleasure."[3] but his encounter with the cottage's alcoholic custodian returned him to thoughts of misery.[4]
Pictures
Oldest known engraving, 1805
Bedroom
Kitchen
Plan and Elevation view
Cross section
View of cottage with an addition, torn down in 1902
Back of cottage in 1904, showing then-new museum building
^Cottage for Sale — The cottage in which the Ayrshire Bard, Robert Burns, was born, which has been for years a well frequented inn, now advertised for sale by the incorporation of shoemakers of Ayr, to whom the premises present belong.[1]