Hunting out the haggis

You either love haggis or you hate it. A plate of spiced sheep's innards minced up with suet and oatmeal then cooked in the animal's stomach may seem far from appetising, but in Scotland it long ago ceased to be mere food. Served with a glass of whisky, it is the nation's sacrament.

Or at least it is so once a year. On Burn's Day – January 25, the poet Robert Burns' birthday – no patriotic Scot will be without a plate of haggis, neeps and tatties. The traditional Burns Supper is a ceremony observed even by those who detest haggis (some secretly smuggle it away from the table in their handkerchiefs), and is always accompanied by something which many people outside Scotland find equally indigestible – the reciting of Burns' poetry, especially his Address To A Haggis which elevated those stuffed sheeps' stomachs to the status of national dish. Burns looms over Scotland like no one else, while Auld Lang Syne, which he adapted from a traditional Scottish folk ballad, is the world's best-known song. More books have been devoted to his life and work than any other British literary figure, and when you visit the part of south-west Scotland where he lived – inevitably known as Burns Country – you start to wonder how the huge void would have been filled if Burns had never existed.

It is hard to escape Burns in Ayrshire. Almost every A-road has signposts to at least one Burns attraction. Many of the pubs – The Twa Dugs, Chapman Billies, Tam o' Shanter to name but a few – are references to his poetry, while the Ayr Brewery has christened its fine real ales after Burns characters like Leezie Lundie, Jolly Beggar and Towzie Tyke.

Restaurants, too, serve dishes inspired by his work and if you take refuge in Ayr's superb balti house, The Rupee Room, thinking that here at least you will find a sanctuary from all things Burns and haggis, then think again. Near the top of the menu is Haggis Pakora. Down the road, meanwhile, the excellent Beresford Wine Bar and Art Gallery serves pizzas with a haggis topping. The epicentre of Burns Country is the village of Alloway, two miles south of Ayr, where Burns was born in a low thatched cottage – still there today – and spent his first seven years.

As literary shrines go, Burns Cottage is as hallowed as they come, but anyone expecting the original furniture and artefacts made to look as though they've been preserved in aspic – like you find at the Bront parsonage in Haworth – is in for a big surprise. There's no chintzy Georgian-Victorian dcor here, because Burns came from a poor farming family who had barely enough food to eat and shared part of their home with the livestock. Sounds boring? Well, it's far from that. The cottage may almost define the word austere, but the National Trust for Scotland have countered this brilliantly by recreating the voices and myriad other sounds of the Burns household, which follow you from stable and byre to kitchen and bedroom.

It could be an abominable gimmick, but it's actually enthralling and the technology behind it is clearly sophisticated. To see the huge collection of the poet's personal possessions, letters and manuscripts you have to visit a new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum at Alloway which is due to open this summer. Until then, much of the collection is on show at Rozelle House, a Georgian manor a mile in the direction of Ayr.

Alloway itself is still where most attractions are located. The village's Auld Kirk, just along the road from Burns Cottage, is best seen when dusk is approaching and the church's gaunt shell conjures up the atmosphere of the scene featuring witches and warlocks in Burns' most famous poem, Tam o' Shanter. Across the road is the Brig o' Doon, another real location used in the epic poem. It is a medieval bridge spanning the River Doon, and the gentle valley through which it flows is surely what stirred in Burns his poetic appreciation of landscape.

In fact, it's the charm of Burns Country which allows even Burns nonbelievers to enjoy this part of Scotland. Much of it has remained unaltered since the days when it inspired poems like The Banks o' Doon and Comin' Thro the Rye. Overlooking the Brig o' Doon is the National Burns Memorial Tower, the sort of grand monument which, at first sight, you think has been erected for someone like the Duke of Wellington.

Other Burns sites worth visiting are scattered around the county. The wonderfully named Bachelors' Club, for example, is in the village of Tarbolton out among the rolling Ayrshire farmland. This thatched cottage is where Burns set up a debating society in 1780, when he was 21. It was a quite remarkable thing for a farm labourer to do, but by then his genius had already been demonstrated in the poem O, Once I lov'd A Bonnie Lass. Another essential stop is the Burns House Museum at Mauchline, where he spent the most creative period of his life. The small town also has a statue of Burns's wife, Jean Armour. And then there is Souter Johnnie's Cottage at the village of Kirkoswald. This was the home of a real shoemaker named John Davidson, whom Burns used as the basis of his character Souter Johnnie in Tam o' Shanter.

But it's not all Burns in Ayrshire. The long coastline, especially in summer, is one of the most scenic in Scotland, since it forms the eastern shore of the Firth of Clyde and has sea views dominated by the Island of Arran – the serrated mountains known as The Sleeping Warrior because of their profile – and a huge lump of granite known as Ailsa Craig, home to thousands of gannets.

The best viewpoint for all of this is the magnificent clifftop edifice of Culzean Castle (pronounced Cull-ain), not a real castle at all but a grand country house built by the Marquess of Ailsa in the 18th century. Behind it are lovely woods and a deer park which would have been totally out-of-bounds to a common ploughboy like Robert Burns.

Which is a pity. His eye for beauty could not fail to be impressed.

What to see and where to go

The village of Alloway is on the B7024 south of Ayr. The main Burns visitor attractions are run by the National Trust for Scotland under the title of Burns National Heritage Park. These include Burns Cottage and the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, due to open later this year.

For further information visit www.nts.org.uk

Culzean Castle and Country Park is on the A719, 12 miles south of Ayr. For opening times Tel. 0844 493 2149 or visit the National Trust for Scotland website above.

Burns House Museum is in Castle Street, Mauchline. Tel. 01563-554902.

Souter Johnnie's Cottage is in Main Road, Kirkoswald. Details on the National Trust for Scotland website or Tel. 0844 4932147.

Ayr Brewery real ales are brewed and on sale at Glenpark Hotel, 5 Racecourse Road, Ayr. Tel. 01292 263891.

For details of other attractions and accommodation options check www.visitscotland.com/guide and click on Ayrshire.