‘When, glimmering thro’ the groaning trees, Kirk-Aloway seem’d in a bleeze;’[Tam o’ Shanter, 1790]
Veesit the graves o Burns’s faither an wee sister in the 16th-century kirk ruin, ‘where ghaists and houlets nightly cry’.
The 16th century kirk wis aaready a ruin by Burns’s time. Burns chose the kirk’s weddert gaivel-end as the spat whaur Tam furst clocks the caperin carlins an warlocks wha eftirhin gie him chase.
Ye can veesit the graves o Burns’s faither William Burnes an sister Isabella Burns Begg. Monie o the gravestanes bear pernicketie carvins, sic lik Burns’s faither’s wha’s inscreeption wis scrievit by the bard himsel.
Ithir namely fowk beerit here include the likes o Lord Alloway an Charles Acton Broke. He wis the son o Rear Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Acton Broke, the furst man tae scutch an tak haud o an American ship in the War o 1812.