STILL ON
August (Part two)
Continuing my look back over August and my holiday from work, Sunday 16th August was a special day.
When I became President of the Howff back in April it had always been my intention to arrange a club outing and make Ayrshire as the port of call especially this year on the 250th anniversary of the birth on R Burns and it being
Well it happened!! On a wet Sunday in August (16th) 20 members and friends took off through the Nith Valley and Upper Nithsdale to Tarbolton and the ‘Bachelors club’ where two excellent guides from the National Trust ,who run the premises, gave us a marvellous tour and talk on the activities of the club. Back to our mini bus and onto Mauchline where we gathered in ‘Poosie Nancies Pub’ for lunch and refreshments. After a superb lunch there was time to view the Burns contemporaries’ graves in Mauchline Kirkyard. These are all marked by small plaques telling of whose graves they are and what their association was with Burns.
From Mauchline we then travelled through to Irvine to be greeted by members of the ‘Irvine Burns Club’ where we shown round there very impressive club and allowed to view many of the interesting pieces they have relating to Burns and the Burns movement. We returned through Mauchline and to ‘Poosie Nancies’ for further refreshments! And to collect John Lauder’s umbrella that was left as a ‘plant’! We viewed the Jean Armour statue that stands outside the library in the village before embarking on a pleasant journey home. Wet when we left in the morning but the sun had shone throughout the day and as we arrived back in
I personally thank the Secretary D Smith for the hard work in securing our guides and arranging most of the day’s activities.
JOHN M CASKIE
PRESIDENT BURNS HOWFF CLUB
SEPTEMBER 2009