Please donate to the Burns Memorial Hillside Montrose

This is the second Just Giving page raised by Montrose Burns club - (the first Just-Giving page timed out and was automatically closed).

Our fund raising has secured over £8,000 from donations by individuals and businesses, either directly to our club and also from our first Just-Giving page – we are extremely grateful to all who have donated and supported our club.

However, we still seek help to close the £10,000 funding gap for the construction of the new memorial to Burns at Rosemount Montrose which contains the Burns plaque which has been removed from the old wall, as the plaque was under threat and needed to be moved to preserve it.

All further donations will be most gratefully received.

The plaque in its former setting in the crumbling wall on Rosemount road -

The plaque commemorates the visit to by Robert Burns in 1787, when Burns stopped with his pal Willie Nicol to water their horses at Rosemount on the drove-road south, after visiting the ancestral home of his father and family at Clochnahill in the Mearns during his Highland Tour in 1787, before meeting his cousin James Burnes in Bow Butts Montrose and staying at the Turks Head Inn, sited on what is now The Barber Shop in George Street, - before travelling on to Auchmithie the next day and further south on his journey home.

Also remembered are the 4 good men of Hillside - C.J. Shaw the Sunnyside superintendent and two orderlies, Joseph Harris and Willie Herd and patient Adam Christie.

Adam Christie was the outside artist who hailed from Cunningsburgh, Shetland, remembered for his body of work in sculpture, painting and fiddle making, over his 50 years as a patient in Sunnyside hospital. He is known as ‘’The Gentle Shetlander’’ from Ken Keddie’s book of the same name, and he carved the memorial stone in 1930, sculpting with only rudimentary tools, nails and glass, when it was placed into the wall as the memorial to Robert Burns.

This year’s September event will the last to be held at the old memorial site, as the new memorial cairn is nearing completion and a major inaugural ceremony is planned for March 2024.

Our final meeting at the old wall, will mark a watershed in many ways for us, especially due to the variety of initiatives Montrose Burns club is currently undertaking in the name of Burns and his heritage in our town and area.

All future September gatherings shall be held at our new memorial in Rosemount estate.

The imminent completion of the new memorial, by our very fine stonemason/builder Brian Doig.

o What a wonderful tribute to Robert Burns we now have in the form of the design by Crawford architects and the super building work by Brian Doig Builders of Arbroath.

Also the inclusion within the cairn of the sculpted head in the likeness of an Adam Christie head, sculpted from a piece of Shetland stone by Brian Wyllie of Pitmures – a lasting tribute to the heritage of our Bard -

Our club could not have asked for a better job on the creation and skills of Brian and his team and Brian our sculptor.

o MBC are grateful to Sunnyside developments for providing the stone for the memorial, which gives a solid link between the 4 men of Hillside who placed the original Burns plaque, and the fabric of the new memorial cairn now housing that plaque. MBC are also appreciative to Angus Council Parks department for their support with the planning and for providing cobbles to help with the base of the memorial.

o MBC still looks to fill the deficit of £10,000 to complete payment for this memorial and any further donations will be gratefully received.

The Adam Christie sculpture rescue and launch

○ MBC was at the forefront of the plan to fund and retain a collection of sculptures by Adam Christie which came up unexpectedly at auction in Montrose in March this year. A last minute “rescue” bid was staged, resulting in 11 heads, half the collection, being retained here in Montrose. Since then, MBC entered into a management agreement with Angus Alive/Montrose museum and this hugely important collection is now retained for the future and is currently on show in the museum.

○ Angus Alive / Montrose Museum have recognised the worth of this collection and will liaise with the Shetland museum to keep the links of Adam Christie – the Gentle Shetlander alive.

○ The opening ceremony for this collection was held at the museum on 15th Sept with local dignitaries in attendance along with Pat and Peter Christie, descendants of Adam attending.

○ Local Pitmuries sculptor Brian Wyllie continued his meticulous work in creating another head sculpture in the likeness of an elderly Adam, cut from a piece of Sunnyside stone. This head will be transported to Shetland and be shown as a tribute to Adam. A piece of stone from Shetland in our Rosemount cairn and a piece from Sunnyside in Shetland, a link which will last forever.

○ MBC are most grateful to Angus Alive/Montrose Museum for the support given in helping with this important are of heritage.

MBC Website & Burns Trail

○ Our club is in the process of creating a website which will contain a Burns trail.

○ The website will identify all things associated with Robert Burns – the story of Burns, his journey through our area on his Highland tour of 1787, the artefacts, buildings and sites in and around Montrose and district. This will allow the public and tourists alike, to gain knowledge and enjoy the heritage of Burns in our area.

○ We are incorporating a Burns Trail linked to the website. We now have a framework for the website which includes a Burns Trail of 10 or more sites, in and around Montrose which Robert Burns either visited or where other relatives of Burns lived.

○ Our work on the trail will dovetail with the Burns trail which is already created for the Mearns and MBC intend to link with other Montrose organisations/businesses and with Angus Tourist board to promote the rich Burns heritage of our area to the public. Identification of Burns sites will be achieved by use of QR coded signage, linked to the club website.

○ MBC see the benefit of social media and we now have a Facebook page which we use also to promote the club and our business. The website will dovetail will link with that Facebook page.

○ Our club is extremely grateful for the financial support we have already received from SeaGreen – this goes to the funding for setting up the website and trail. We remain short of £1800 on this total.

○ Our club is self-funding this project by at least £1,150.

Many thanks – Dave Clark – Montrose Burns club project coordinator