Rediscovering Scots

Over 250 years since Burns was born in Alloway, the cottage where he lived has a resident poet for the first time since our National Bard lived there.

Rab Wilson is our Scriever-in-Residence, a post that sees him soak up the atmosphere of the cottage where Burns lived, as well as studying the documents and artefacts at Robert Burns Birthplace Museum and leading workshops celebrating the Scots language.

Rab says: ‘In the last census, over 2 million people ettled that they spoke Scots every day – so that’s a lot of folk that speak Scots. But, maybe no everybody is as confident in writing Scots – it’s a skill that we’ve lost to an extent. It’s guid to try an bring these words into use y’know, re-educate folk in the language and havin them use this great language again, now, in this modern age.’

The Scriever-in-Residence project was developed by Chris Waddell, our Learning Manager at Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. He sees the museum as a centre of excellence of Scots language. The work that Rab’s doing will go some way to make people feel more confident in using the mither tongue, whether it’s children discovering the language for the first time or adults rediscovering forbidden words.

Chris said: ‘Scots has often been discredited, mocked and considered as slang. It’s wonderful seeing Rab showing people how they can recall the words of their youth and put them back into use.’

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