The Auld Brig, Ayr
The Auld Brig, Ayr at night. Image by Kenny Murray
Burns's well known pronouncement on Ayr appears in his poem 'Tam o’ Shanter':
Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonnie lasses
In Burns’s poem ‘The Brigs of Ayr’ the Auld Brig berates the New Brig, predicting it will fall down long before it reaches old age:
Auld Brig
I doubt na, frien', ye'll think ye're nae sheepshank,
Ance ye were streekit owre frae bank to bank!
But gin ye be a brig as auld as me-
Tho' faith, that date, I doubt, ye'll never see-
There'll be, if that day come, I'll wad a boddle,
Some fewer whigmaleeries in your noddle…
Burns was right. The Auld Brig is thought to date from the 13th century and still stands today. The New Brig collapsed in 1877, having stood for less than a hundred years.
In the poem Burns conjures up the presence of Thomas the Rhymer and a host of fairy creatures that preside over the bridges:
Our warlock Rhymer instantly descry'd
The Sprites that owre the brigs of Ayr preside.
(That Bards are second-sighted is nae joke,
And ken the lingo of the sp'ritual folk;
Fays, Spunkies, Kelpies, a', they can explain them,
And ev'n the vera deils they brawly ken them.)
Auld Brig appear'd of ancient Pictish race,
The very wrinkles gothic in his face:
He seem'd as he wi' Time had warstl'd lang,
Yet, teughly doure, he bade an unco bang.
In 1773 Robert lived in Ayr and was taught grammar, French and Latin by John Murdoch.