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Scotland's most famous poet Robert Burns declared porridge as being "the Chief of Scotia's food".
And with this being the Year of Scotland's Homecoming, the 2009 World Porridge Making Championship is to have a special Burns theme to tie in with the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth.
This will see Edinburgh actor, Christopher Tait - the official Burns for Homecoming - out and about during the day dressed in period costume and performing snippets of some of the poet's best known verse.
A further Burns' highlight will be the auctioning of a replica of a wooden porridge bowl which once belonged to the poet himself.
The replica of the Burns Bowl which is to be auctioned
at the World Porridge Making Championship.
The original Burns Bowl is among an extensive collection of Burns work including rare manuscripts and other memorabillia housed in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina.
The bowl is among more than 5,000 Burns items presented to the university by its Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature and leading internationally recognised Burns scholar, Dr G. Ross Roy.
The 85-year-old who hails from Montreal began collecting Robert Burns manuscripts more than 50 years ago building on a small collection he inherited from his Scottish born grandfather, W. Ormiston Roy - a landscape gardener and dog breeder from Paisley whose interest dated back to 1892 when his wife to be, Charlotte Spriggings presented him with a copy of Burns' work.
The Burns Bowl, which featured in the Glasgow Burns Centenary Exhibition in 1896, is thought to have been purchased when W. Ormiston Roy, accompanied by his grandson, made a visit back to his native homeland in 1932.
The one-off replica, which includes the poet's initials and the date inscribed into the wood, has been hand-made by local woodturner Peter Tyler at his workshop in Farr near Inverness following the design from photographs provided by the University of South Carolina.
The replica will be sold to the highest bidder with email bids being invited in advance of the final auction. Bids can be submitted by email to
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up until 12noon on Friday October 9. |
