Burns Night Celebrations

The haggis is, of course, central to any Burns Night celebration - with the cutting of the pudding being preceded by the "Address to a Haggis"

But here are 10 other facts tied in with Rabbie, Scotland and Whisky

1. In 1786, the first edition of Robert Burns’s poems was published in Kilmarnock at Star Inn Close. An original Kilmarnock edition is very rare and much sought after today. A stone marks the site, which is now a shopping mall.

2. Johnnie Walker was born near Kilmarnock in 1805, and in 1820, aged just 15, he opened a grocery shop in Kilmarnock’s King Street. Using his teablending skills, Johnnie became known for his own special blended whisky, Walker’s Kilmarnock Whisky. When his son Alexander took over, in 1859, the firm expanded to become the largest whisky firm in the world.

3. The word whisky is derived from the Gaelic ‘uisge beatha’, meaning ‘water of life’, and is recorded even earlier in Latin as ‘aqua vitae’.

4. In 1815, the American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe spent some months attending the local school in Irvine. His writing lessons consisted of copying the epitaphs from the tombstones in the parish churchyard, no doubt providing food for thought in his later career.

5. Duncansby Head, 2 miles (3.2 km) further on from John o’ Groats, is at the actual extreme northeastern tip of mainland Britain. A short walk brings into sight the amazing Duncansby Stacks, two jagged sea stacks that thrust up from the ocean like great molars.

6. Ae, a tiny village 8 miles (13 km) north of Dumfries, founded in 1947 to house forestry workers, has the shortest name of any village or town in Britain. It is also the only place name in Britain without a consonant.

7. Kirkintilloch was one of the last places in Scotland to remain totally dry – alcohol was prohibited in the town until the 1970s.

8. Dallas, the great Texan city that spawned a soap opera of the same name, has its origins in Morayshire. In 1279, William de Ripley obtained the lands and tiny village of Dallas, on the River Lossie, 6 miles (9.6 km) southeast of Forres. On being knighted, he changed his name to Sir William of Dallas. His descendants emigrated to America and, in 1844, one of them, George Mifflin Dallas, became Vice- President of the United States. Dallas in Texas was named after him. Dallas means ‘watery valley’.

9. Scottish entrepreneur Patrick Miller introduced a yellow-fleshed turnip into Scotland. It was sent to him by King Gustav of Sweden – which is why turnips of this sort are sometimes called Swedes...

10. The Mitchell Library in Glasgow is the biggest public reference library in Europe and holds the world’s largest collection of books on Robert Burns (3,500 volumes).

Extracted from I Never Knew That About Scotland, by Christopher Winn

The haggis, as the centrepiece of the meal, goes without saying - but we offer you a couple of recipes to go along with it

The Black Grouse Venison

Creme Brulee with Cinamom scented Whisky Ice-cream