A Unique Residency at Robert Burns’s Ellisland Farm
Two of the world’s leading poets will soon step into the landscape that inspired Robert Burns for a landmark literary collaboration. Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, and Peter Mackay, Scotland’s Makar, will arrive at Ellisland Farm next month for a unique joint residency.
This will be the first ever literary residency at Ellisland, the home Burns built in 1788 for his family. Living and working by the banks of the River Nith, Goodison and Mackay will explore how landscape, language and song continue to shape poetry across cultures, from Burns’s Scots to Goodison’s fusion of English and Jamaican Creole to Mackay’s Gaelic.
The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust and The Scottish Poetry Library are jointly supporting the residency and will partner with The Stove Network in Dumfries to present a one-off public performance called Amang the Friends of Early Days on 9 September. The event will feature Lorna Goodison’s only Scottish reading, including extracts from her much-anticipated new book The Inferno (Carcanet, 2025). Tickets can be purchased here
A quarter of a century in the making, The Inferno reimagines Dante’s journey through the underworld, guided not by Virgil but by Jamaica’s beloved poet Louise Bennett, “Miss Lou.” Goodison blends the full continuum of Jamaican speech with Dante’s architecture, creating a dazzling world that draws in Caribbean poets, reggae innovators, politicians and cultural icons. Her Dumfries reading offers audiences a rare chance to hear this transformative work performed live.
Poetry Residency at Ellisland
This is the first time Ellisland has hosted a literary residency. Lorna Goodison will stay in Auld Acquaintance Cottage, residential accommodation at the heart of the farm Burns built in 1788, which is considered the best place to see nature through the poet’s eyes. Peter will stay a short distance away at Friars Carse, the neighbouring estate once owned by Burns’s friend and collaborator, Robert Riddell.
The pilot residency is part of the Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, South of Scotland Enterprise, Museums Galleries Scotland, and The Holywood Trust. The project aims to restore Ellisland and make it a vibrant cultural destination that will offer residencies and creative retreats to visitors from across the world.
This residency and reading mark the final leg of Lorna Goodison’s UK and Ireland Reading Tour, which includes appearances in London on 2 September, Cork on 4 September, and Manchester on 6 September.
Ellisland: A Place of Inspiration
Joan McAlpine, Project Director of The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust, said:
“Ellisland was where Robert Burns found deep inspiration in the banks of the Nith, and it is wonderful to welcome two such distinguished poets to that same landscape. Lorna Goodison and Peter Mackay bring with them rich traditions in Jamaican Creole, English and Gaelic, and their residency shows how Burns’s legacy continues to spark creativity across languages and cultures. We are thrilled to collaborate with the Scottish Poetry Library and The Stove to share this unique encounter with the public in Dumfries.”
Amang the Friends of Early Days, a joint reading by Lorna Goodison and Peter Mackay will take place in The Stove, Dumfries High Street, at 7.00pm on Tuesday 9 September. Tickets are £6.00 and can be purchased via Eventbrite.
About the Poets
Lorna Goodison served as Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2017–2020) and was named Poet Laureate Emerita in 2021. In 2019 she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, one of the most prestigious honours in the English-speaking world. Her many accolades include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Jamaica’s Musgrave Gold Medal for Eminence in Literature, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007). She also holds honorary doctorates from the University of the West Indies and the University of Toronto, among others.
Widely recognised as one of the leading Caribbean voices of her generation, Goodison’s poetry and prose have been published and celebrated internationally. Her forthcoming book, The Inferno (Carcanet, 2025), a reimagined “Jamaican Dante,” is her most ambitious project to date and will feature in her only Scottish reading during this residency.
Peter Mackay was appointed Scotland’s Makar in 2024, becoming the first native Gaelic speaker to serve as national poet. Born on the Isle of Lewis, Mackay is a poet, translator, broadcaster and academic whose work is deeply informed by the languages and traditions of the Hebrides.
His debut pamphlet, From Another Island (Clutag Press, 2010), was followed by the acclaimed collections Gu Leòr / Galore (2015) and Nàdar De / Some Kind Of (2020), both published by Acair. Each was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year, with Nàdar De also longlisted for the Highland Book Prize. Mackay’s poems have been widely translated into more than ten languages, including French, German, Czech, Irish, Occitan, Serbian and Welsh, underlining his international reach.