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Children explore farming past and present at SAC’s Auchincruive Estate

More than 400 school children stepped back in time on SAC’s Auchincruive estate in Ayrshire to learn about how much Scottish agriculture has changed since Robert Burns farmed the land in the late 1700s.

The event was ‘Farming Past and Present’, organised by the Royal Highland Education Trust with the help of SAC. Primary 6 pupils from 15 Ayrshire schools witnessed some of the farming techniques with which Burns would have been familiar in his day, including a demonstration of Clydesdale horses harrowing a field. (It was disturbing a mouse’s nest with his horse-drawn plough that inspired Burns to write one of his most famous works, ‘To a Mouse’.)

In addition to seeing the kind of tools Burns would have used, the children also witnessed history come to life. Staff from the Burns museum in Alloway walked the estate dressed in period costume, bursting into the Bard’s poetry for the pupils they met.

SAC staff and students took an active part in the event, guiding the children around the estate and answering their many questions. The children also got chance to see inside Oswald Hall, the mansion house on the estate which was built around Burns’ time.

Other highlights of the action-packed event were sheepdog trials with Peter Hetherington of ‘One Man and His Dog’, old-fashioned carriage driving, a glimpse inside a bee hive, traditional butter making and a demonstration by a farrier.

SAC’s Countryside Education Officer Sally Gray said: “This was not the first RHET Estate Day to be run at Auchincruive but it was the biggest so far. Everyone had a great time – the children were clearly fascinated by everything they saw, which was fantastic. They asked a lot of question, such as how the shepherd taught his sheep dog to count! The butter making was also a great success – the children were captivated by the magic of turning cream into butter just by shaking it.

“I would like to thank the SAC staff who gave up their time to help and also RHET’s Susan MacDonald and her team for all their hard work both on the run up to the event and on the day itself.”

Planning is now getting underway for the next event at Auchincruive in 2012.

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