Burns Museum opens

The world class visitor attraction houses the most significant Burns collection of its kind including 5,000 historic artefacts, manuscripts and pieces of memorabilia.

It brings together the Alloway sites with a connection to Burns - the new museum, the Burns Monument, Alloway Auld Kirk, Burns Cottage, an education pavilion and Auld Brig O'Doon. A new footbridge will also be created to link key sites to the new museum.

The #21 million National Trust for Scotland project has been funded by partners including the Scottish Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund and South Ayrshire Council as well as private donations from across the world. The Scottish Government provided funding of #8.6 million. At the event the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government's iPhone app, featuring the complete works of Robert Burns, is the fifth most popular app in the free Reference section in iTunes after only three days of availability. Mr Salmond also announced a near 20 per cent increase in the budget for the schools' visitation programme to #150,000 with the aim of allowing every child in Scotland the opportunity to see the new Burns museum and other Scottish historical sites.

First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Burns is an international cultural icon, loved the world over. The new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum allows us the opportunity to celebrate his influence on the modern world and his contribution to Scotland's culture and creativity. "This major tourist attraction will bring a wealth of economic and cultural benefits to South Ayrshire and Scotland and bring to life the work of Robert Burns for this and future generations. "The world renowned collection of important artefacts, including the Burns family Bible, original manuscripts and a miniature volume of verse that travelled 5.7 million miles to space, brings to life the story of the national Bard using a variety of cutting edge techniques.

"The museum is a lasting legacy of our year of Homecoming which celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Bard and proved to be an enormously successful celebration of Burns and some of Scotland's other great contributions to the world shaping science, innovation, energy, technology and culture." Makar Liz Lochhead said: "It is a huge pleasure to officially open the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which is such an asset to the further popular enjoyment of our so well-loved National Poet. His work is, was, and ever shall be, the greatest monument to him; but his life of passion, pleasure, poverty and contradiction will never fail to fascinate, infuriate, challenge and engage with us, whether we're young or old, scholar or ordinary enthusiast, Scot or citizen of somewhere else." Kate Mavor, Chief Executive of the National Trust for Scotland, said: "We are delighted to officially launch the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum and hope the public will join us in our celebrations and take advantage of free entry to the museum tomorrow (22 January). This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the life of Robert Burns as we join millions around the world in celebrating his life on the 25th of January." Nat Edwards, Director of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, said: "It is fitting that a museum to mark the life and works of one of Scotland's most loved poets is opened by another. Having Liz Lochhead perform her first official duty as Makar makes this historic occasion even more memorable. Both this opening and her appointment are clear signals of the fantastic energy of Scottish poetry today."