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Field Visit
Date 16 June 2014
Event ID 1011599
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1011599
NS 33475 18593 Single-storey, seven-bay cottage, built in 1737 and extended in 1808. The cottage was the birthplace of Robert Burns and is now part of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which is run by the National Trust for Scotland. The building is of an almost rectangular plan (though slightly curved) and, subsequent to it’s extension in 1808, it was used as an alehouse until 1880 ‘when it was acquired and restored by the Burns Monument Trustees’. The building has a reed-thatched roof and a five-tiered (per elevation) timber plank ridge. This type of ridge appears to be a tradition for the area, and other buildings in Ayrshire still retain this type of material (e.g Souter Johnnie’s Cottage in Kirkoswold). The thatch has been left entirely uncovered and on the north elevation has a large amount of mossy vegetation growth across the surface of the reed, which has become quite dense in one area. The thatch has been left straight at the eaves along the south elevation, whilst on the north elevation the thatch has been sculpted slightly at the eaves over the top of the central window opening only.
Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 16 June 2014, survey no.207
