Souter Johnnie's Cottage

The Bachelors' Club→

A Short History of Robert Burns

Death and Doctor Hornbook

Tam O'Shanter

John Barleycorn

Kirk Alloway

On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations

'The Antiquities of Scotland' by Captain Grose

Bachelors' Club

I always thought the Bachelors' Club was a building; a clubhouse. It is not. John Richard of Tarbolton knocked through the two rooms on the first floor of is house in Tarbolton to make one sizable room and hired out the room to to anyone who needed it. It was used for amongst other things; dancing lessons, Freemasonry meetings and the debating society which became the Bachelors' Club.

The Bachelors' Club was founded by Robert Burns, David Sillar and Robert's brother, Gilbert as a debating society in the village of Tarbolton. The club had an elaborate set of rules.

Burns was initiated into Freemasonry here and attended dancing lessons (much to the disgust of his father, William).

Do read the poem, Death and Dr. Hornbook. It's not just a superb poem but it links Tarbolton, Burns and the Bachelors' Club together very well.