Robert Burns: Virtual museum allows worldwide audiences to get up close to Scotland’s national bard

More than 2,500 pieces of memorabilia, including some which have never before been displayed, are now available to explore from anywhere in the world via a new online portal.

The digital gallery will allow viewers to examine up close the internationally important collections kept at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, in the Ayrshire village of Alloway, run by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

Highlights include one of only six known manuscripts of Auld Lang Syne – dating from 1793 – as well as previously un-shown writings such as Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots, On the Approach of Spring, Scots Wha Hae and an unbound, uncut copy of the Kilmarnock Edition.

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The resource, which has taken a year to pull together, gives “unprecedented access” to the NTS’s archives and artefacts linked to Burns, including more than 1,000 pieces that are held in special storage to ensure their preservation and would rarely – or never – be displayed.

Virtual visitors can also zoom in on the exhibits and see them from different angles, allowing much closer inspection than even a real-life viewing can provide.

“It allows us to provide access to manuscripts all-year round – and in close-up detail in a way we were never really be able to do before,” said Susie Hillhouse, collections manager for the NTS.

“I know myself when I zoom in on one of his letters there is a real personal connection with the man who wrote them because you can see his pen strokes in great detail.

“You can see how he wrote, scoring words out and doodling in the margins. It is genuinely a type of access we would struggle to provide to visitors in the museum.”

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NTS senior curator Sarah Beattie is equally excited about the online portal, which also features more modern relics.

“It’s an interesting collection with an odd mix of different items,” she said. The wedding rings belonging to Burns and his wife Jean Armour, which have strands of their hair set inside, and the woollen sock carrying the bard’s initials are among some of the public’s favourites, she says.

“Everyone asks about the socks – they are quirky, but also really normal,” she said. “Seeing the sock really humanises Burns.”

She is also delighted that items such as the Kilmarnock Edition, which is so fragile and precious it cannot be exposed to light or handled, can now be explored.

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And the collection will keep expanding and evolving as time goes on and more memorabilia is added to the collection.

As well as the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, the NTS also cares for the nearby cottage where the bard was born in 1759.

The online offering, which was funded by a member of the charity’s Patrons’ Club and the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA, is part of the organisation’s mission to deliver “nature, beauty and heritage for everyone”.