Ambitious plans to safeguard the only farm built by Robert Burns have received overwhelming public support. A digital engagement exercise found almost 90 per cent backing for proposals to preserve and improve Ellisland Farm beside the River Nith where the Bard wrote Auld Lang Syne and Tam o’ Shanter.
The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust want new generations of artists and musicians to work in the landscape that inspired the poet, and also to create holiday accommodation and event hire to make the site sustainable.
Under the Ellisland FutureVision project the 1788 cottage would be brought back to its original state, with other historic buildings converted to host educational and community activity.
Biodiversity would be enhanced by woodland management and native cultivation. The digital engagement exercise found 96 per cent agreed that conservation and education work should be subsidised by activities such as tourism and events, an approach known as “conservation through use”.
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