Robbie Burns visit to Inveraray

[Redshank]

Burns was not impressed with by the welcome he got when he arrived at Inveraray in June 1787,
he vented his frustration and anger in verse by scratching it on the hotel window, unfortunately the actual inscribed window pane
has disappeared without trace.



Who e’er he be that sojourns here

I pity much his case

Unless he come 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,

T’was surely in an anger.





Robbie Burns

June 1787



In mid June 1787 Burns mounted his faithful mare, Jenny Geddes, and set off for the West Highlands. It is assumed that Burns was collecting subscriptions for the Edinburgh Edition on this tour and that he was accompanied by Dr George Grierson and Mr George Gairdner of Ladykirk. The farthest extent of the tour was Inveraray, seat of John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. It was unfortunate for Burns that the committee of the British Fisheries Society, of which the Duke was President, was meeting at Inveraray prior to selecting Tobermory as a new fishing port in the Island of Mull. The result was that the castle was full, the local inn was crowded with guests and Burns got very poor service. He vented his wrath by scratching on one of the window-panes.

[Sionnach]

I felt that way myself, once, when stopping over in Kayenta, Arizona.

[Mael Coluim]

Fascinating bit of history, Chris! Our own American poet Edgar Allen Poe etched his initials on a window pane of his dormitory room when he was a student at the University of Virginia. He didn’t graduate, but the window pane is still there and the room, #13 is keep as it was.