This film is part of Free

Auld Ayrshire

A tour of Rabbie Burns' beautiful home county, in enchanting colour.

Travelogue 1930 2 mins Silent

Overview

The majestic vistas of Rabbie Burns' home county are beautifully served in this gorgeously stencil-coloured moving postcard, courtesy of the reliably well-crafted Pathe Pictorial cinemagazine. The colours might not be quite naturalistic - especially the near-lilac waters at the final stop, which looks to be Girvan - but that only makes the film all the more enchanting.

Beginning, inevitably, at the Burns cottage at Alloway and the nearby Burns Monument and Brig'o'Doon, the film tours Ayrshire's beauty spots ("all here for the Artist"), including Loch Doon ("The outstretching lake embosom'd mang the hills") and the coastal views of Kennedy's Pass. Pathe Pictorial was by far the most long-lived of Britain's cinemagazines, enjoying an all but unbroken run (with a few changes along the way) of just over 50 years. Produced from 1918 to 1969, it turned out more than 2,600 weekly editions.