Completely Burns

Richard Wilson reads this song written 'out of compliment to Miss Ann Masterton, the daughter of my friend Allan Masterton’, who became writing master at the High School in Edinburgh.

Read by Juliet Cadzow and written in honour of Jessie Lewars, a friend of the family, who nursed Burns during his final illness and helped Jean with their many children after his death.

When William Cunninghame of Enterkine, Tarbolton came of age, he held a supper and ball, or Fete Champetre, on the banks of the Ayr to which most of the respectable families in the county were invited. Some thought he was using the event as an introduction to canvas for parliament but this never came to fruition. Read by Phyllida Law.

Lorraine McIntosh reads this hauntingly beautiful song in which a lover laments being parted from their beloved and cannot sleep.

Burns stopped at Stonehaven, near the River Dye, on 10 September 1787 to meet some relatives. The model for this song may have been a popular bawdy song of the time. Read by Phyllida Law.

Liz Lochhead reads this poem which Burns penned after being unable to persuade a local Farrier to attend to both his and friend Thomas Sloan's horses which were slipping on the ice.

To The Weaver’s Gin Ye Go tells a cautionary tale - mothers, take the wool to the weaver's yourself! Read by Shirley Henderson