Observant passers-by in High Street may have noticed that a plaque has appeared on the wall at the door of Glen Scotia Distillery. Close inspection will reveal that the plaque commemorates ‘Highland Mary’ Campbell, Robert Burns’s fiancee, who died on 17 October, 1786, at the age of twenty.
The plaque comprises a reproduction of ‘The Betrothal of Robert Burns and Highland Mary’, painted circa 1881 by James Archer, and the following text, accompanied by the final verse of Burns’s ‘Highland Mary’:
‘Mary Campbell, immortalised by Robert Burns (1759-1796) as “Highland Mary”, spent her childhood here in Dalintober. She lived at Broombrae and attended school nearby. She and Burns became engaged in 1786, but she died at Greenock later that year, from a malignant fever, and is buried there.
‘Mary Campbell’s remarkable cult status was founded on such poems as “To Mary in Heaven”, “Highland Mary” and “The Highland Lassie O”, and she remains, by her brief but intense association with Scotland’s most celebrated poet, Dalintober’s most illustrious historical figure.’
‘O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly!
And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance,
That dwalt on me sae kindly!
And mouldering now in silent dust,
That heart that lo’ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom’s core
Shall live my Highland Mary.’
The plaque was funded by the Kintyre Antiquarian and Natural History Society and mounted by kind permission of Glen Scotia Distillery. An anticipatory unveiling was staged at the Society’s AGM in the Argyll Arms Hotel, Campbeltown, on 27 April, when the guest speaker was Professor Gerard Carruthers, head of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow and general editor of the new Oxford University Press edition of the works of Robert Burns, to be published from next year onwards. Professor Carruthers gave an informative and entertaining talk on the subject of Burns and Mary Campbell and their relationship, which remains, almost 225 years later, the subject of intense and at times bitter controversy .
Among those present in the audience was Mr Norrie Paton, a local Burns scholar, who was Angus Martin’s collaborator, over several years, in seeing the project through to completion. Also present was Mr Iain McAllister, manager of Glen Scotia Distillery, and his son, Lucas, who presented Professor Carruthers with a bottle of 10-year-old Glen Scotia, courtesy of Loch Lomond Distillery Company, which owns the distillery.
From left to right in main photograph: Iain McAllister, Angus Martin, Murdo MacDonald (President of the Society), Lucas McAllister, Gerry Carruthers and Norrie Paton. Photographs by George McSporran
