page_title: Ellisland Farm
section_title: Micro-history
hierarchical_section_title: Ellisland Farm / Micro-history
caption_attribution_description: English: Friars Carse hotel, Auldgirth, Scotland
context_page_description: Ellisland Farm lies about 6.5 mi/10.4 km northwest of Dumfries near the village of Auldgirth, located in the Parish of Dunscore, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The complex is a museum in the farm Robert Burns built, lived in and farmed from 1788 until 1791.
context_section_description: The lands of Ellisland had belonged to the Red Comyn and later to Robert the Bruce. To the north was a site reputed to have been an encampment built by the Roman general Agricola. Burns used the pseudonym 'Agricola' for radical poetry he published in the press, the authorship of which, as an exciseman, he obviously wished to keep secret.
  On 16 October 1789 at Friar's Carse, Burns was a witness to a famous drinking contest where the participants set out to see who could be the last man able to blow a whistle. The winner was to have an old ebony Whistle as the trophy; the event was immortalised in the poem The Whistle. The winner was able to consume five bottles of claret.
  On 14 October 1788 Robert Burns is said to have witnessed the trials of Patrick Miller's paddle driven steamboat on the nearby Dalswinton Loch in the company of Sandy Crombie, who was a local builder working at Ellisland. They were amongst a number of others and were not actually on board. This trial was especially significant, being the first use of power from an engine for human transportation anywhere in the World.
  Robert Burns and Robert Riddell set up the Monkland Friendly Society at Dunscore and organised and censored its library of 150 volumes. Riddell was the President and Burns was the secretary of the society that met on every fourth Saturday.
  Patrick Miller was the first to introduce the turnips – Swedes from Sweden to Scotland, as well as the introduction of the threshing mill and the drill plough to Scotland.
  Whilst at Ellisland Burns attended the Rev. William Inglis's Church in Dumfries; as he put it "I go to hear Mr Inglis because he preaches what he believes and practices what he preaches".
  Cuthbertson records that Robert Burness, the poet's uncle, died at Ellisland in January 1789. His daughter, Fanny Burness was taken care of by Burns and eventually married one of Jean Armour's brothers. Uncle Robert lived in the Kilmaurs and Stewarton area for many years and is commemorated in the churchyard.
  Burns apparently left his favourite putting stone at Ellisland and if he saw anyone using it he would call "Bide a wee" and join in the sport, always proving that he was the strongest man there.
caption: Friars' Carse
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