Agnes's Cottage
Images & video footage coming soon...
More accurately, Gilbert's Cottage, Grants Braes was occupied by the Burns family from 1804 until his death in 1827. It was a two-storied tied cottage and part of Gilbert's generous remuneration as factor at Lennoxlove.
The cottage became uninhabitable shortly afterwards and gradually became lost in the mist of time and overgrowth of ivy. There is a suggestion that a cottage was destroyed by fire in that vicinity in the mid eighties but that may have been the one built as a replacement of the original.
By any standards, the cottage must have been overcrowded since Gilbert and his wife Jean Breckenridge had eleven children of their own. The household was further augmented by Gilbert (and Robert's) mother, Agnes Broun, their sister Annabella and Robert's first born, Elizabeth, whom Gilbert had promised to 'bring up as his own'.
Having established the site of the cottage, the present project group has arranged to have the overgrowth cut back and some of the walls exposed. Any repairs required will be carried out using materials and techniques available at the time.
It seems reasonable to assume that a proper archaeological dig on the site would reveal many interesting artefacts pertaining to the Burns family and Scottish families of the time in general but such an undertaking is outwith the scope of the present project.
Should the will and more importantly, the funding, become available; it is one for the future!
