We timed our walk around the Burns' Trail in Alloway to coincide with the birthday of Robert Burns, and are really glad that we did. We parked on one of the streets near Burns' Cottage as the car park was jam packed. I've never seen the area so busy. The National Trust for Scotland were holding various events to coincide with Burns' Night, and entry to Burns' Cottage itself was free.

The day was damp and cloudy, but the rain stayed off. We met just outside Burns' Cottage, and set off towards the museum. The walk along the Poet's Path proved popular with the children as they'd been studying Tam O'Shanter, and they enjoyed working out to which part of the poem each of the signposts corresponded. They all enjoyed posing with the mouse for a photograph .

Once we reached the museum, we turned to walk towards the Auld Kirk. There were entertainers, dressed as Auld Nick and his witches, playing live music and dancing in the kirkyard . This again, was really popular with the kids (and the adults).

Upon leaving the Kirk, we turned left and continued along the road until we reached the Burns National Monument and Memorial Gardens. Again, there were actors re-enacting a scene between Robert Burns and Nancy at the entrance to the Monument. We stayed to watch for a while, then moved on.

We didn't see any other entertainers after this part of the walk, but we could hear more happening around the Museum.

We crossed the road and walked across the bridge over the River Doon, and up over the other side. It was a bit muddy around this area, but we soon reached the road. Following the map from Walk Highlands, we found the cycle path (which featured on Scotland Outdoors that same weekend), and continued along that, admiring the sights of the old Bridge, and Mungo's Well en route.

Once we came off the cycle track we were in a housing estate for a short length of time, before heading back into the woods, and eventually reaching Rozelle Park.

It was a short walk from the park back to Burn's Cottage, albeit along a fairly busy road. We stopped to watch some squirrels playing in the trees beside the road for a while before finally reaching Burns' Cottage - done up in a bow to commemorate his birthday.