Ellisland Farm to have Robert Burns' family home recreated in restoration plans

The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust has unveiled plans to restore Ellisland Farm and recreate the rooms where Burns and his family lived, with every room in the cottage to be opened to the public for the first time; proposals will be submitted to Dumfries and Galloway Council as the trust seeks £12m for conservation work.

Plans have been unveiled to restore Ellisland Farm and recreate the family rooms where Robert Burns lived and wrote. The Category A-listed farm near Dumfries was designed by Burns in 1788 and has remained largely unchanged. The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust has launched a campaign to raise £12m to fund urgent conservation work. The trust says the approach will be deliberately quiet and sensitive and has been informed by recent archival discoveries. Key details: - Every room in Burns' cottage would be opened to the public for the first time; currently only two rooms are accessible. - The rooms occupied by Burns and his family would be "meticulously recreated" using newly identified archival material from Barnbougle Castle described as "bills of fare" that list materials and furnishings. - Later alterations to the cottage would be removed and the front door reinstated to its original position so visitors could enter as Burns would have done in the 18th century. - The plans, developed by Collective Architecture, include a new cafe behind the courtyard, moving staff facilities into later outbuildings, and adapting a barn built by Burns into a sheltered "centre for song" for education and performance. - The granary would be upgraded to display Ellisland's collection of manuscripts and family items, and sensitive visitor accommodation would be built elsewhere on the 140-acre site to generate income. - Recent surveys have identified structural deterioration and timber decay in the buildings; the trust says proposals will be submitted to Dumfries and Galloway Council next week and fundraising is under way to support the work. Summary: If approved, the project aims to recreate domestic rooms and increase public access while keeping interventions restrained and evidence-based. The trust frames the work as conservation guided by archival research; the next formal step is submission of the proposals to the local council and continuation of the fundraising campaign.