WHY NO MENTION OF ARRAN?

[Penny Tray]

Could anyone hazard a guess why Burns never once mentioned "ARRAN" in any of his poems?

[David Young]

Probably because he lived in the I rvine area and South Ayhrshire and maybe he never got to the three towns and never saw Aran. Only a guess????

[Penny Tray]

David,

You'll need to make more use of that bus pass - you can see Arran all the way down to Stranraer - and from all the high hills in Ayrshire. I was also wondering, when thinking about the famous people that may have visited or passed through the Three Towns, how he got to Greenock where he spent some time. He also travelled around in his role as an Exciseman. He captured in verse so many of the beautiful things he saw and heard. Arran must have been begging to have been written about?

[TheTeslarian]

Burns famously never mentioned Arran. But for me, it seems unlikely that he ignored, or failed to see it. I reckon his possibly small reference(s) is/are lost and may yet be found.

The ridges of Arran haunt Ayrshire—Burns must daily have seen them from his door at Mossgiel—and yet, to this most striking object in his range of vision, there is not a single allusion in his letters and poems.

[Penny Tray]

Thanks Teslarian,

I once heard the late Rev. James Currie question this omission and was recently reading a book (the Ayrshire Book of Burns Lore) which said - "See the sun setting behind Arran and you will wonder as many have done. how this great poet made no poetic acknowledgement of such magnificence. Only once did Burns make even an oblique reference to the sunset behind arran; in a letter dated 18 November, 1786 to Miss Wilhelmina Alexander, enclosing the song addressed to her, THE LASS OF BALLOCHMYLE, he described the setting which inspired the poem - ["I had roved out.....to view nature in all the gaiety of the vernal years. The sun was flaming over the distant western hills"] From Mauchline, the reference can only be to Arran."

[Meg]

The sun was flaming over the distant western hills"] From Mauchline, the reference can only be to Arran."

Em - dont know about that PT - it could have been the Carrick Hills. I had two Japanese people staying with me recently who had heard George and I describe the coastline and how beautiful Arran looks all year round. They were here for 5 days and have yet to see Arran - the clouds didn't clear for a minute. I think they thought we were slightly mad - especially also after taking them to the Electric Bray and the car rolled gently uphill !!!!!!

Meg

[Penny Tray]

Meg,

I was only quoting from the book. I don't remember what you can see from Mauchline, good weather or bad. However, I had a similar experience to you with an American visitor. His interest was in Glasgow, Springburn in particular, and we travelled there each day from Ardrossan. For the three or four days of his stay, whilst all the time I was hyping up the beautifiul view, Arran wasn't visible because of a heat haze. Can you believe it?

[morag]

I hesitate to add. perhaps, like most of us, he took them for granted? And when we move away we miss them so much.Everyone knows their charms, so what can I add??

[John Donnelly]

I have been here in Holland for 35 years. We are near the coast and go over there regularly. I still find it strange to walk onto the beach and see nothing but a flat horizon.

I was driving up from England (quite) a few years back. We were south of Cumnock, somewhere about Sanquar probably. It was a fabulously clear day and we could see Ben Lomond. The western hills is a rather big concept.

JD

[TheTeslarian]

You'll all be pleased to know that from Mauchline there is only one line of mountains to the immediate west.

Arran.

The hills of Carrick are to the south. Ben Lomond is to the north. Between Mauchline and Arran there is flatland and sea. West of Mauchline, the only genuine western mountains are found on the Isle of Arran. I would not include the small rises of Dundonald which are also found to the west, but hardly describable as excellent sunset peaks.

For us in Ayrshire, this is a wonderful realisation.

[TheTeslarian]

If you still have doubts, visualise - from anywhere in the Ayrshire mainland, where the sun goes down. It pops behind Arran whether you are standing at Ayr, Prestwick, Irvine or Ardrossan. If you move back a little into the inland areas, the sun still sets in the west (of course). Behind Arran.

[TheTeslarian]

if you still have doubts....