Now go into the wood, away from the golfers, for about 7yds and you will find a small path. Carry on ‘til you come out of the wood and join the Alloway road again about 200yds from the village. Just inside the village is No 6, Alloway Smiddy Cottage, and at the back the updated smiddy, now a workshop.
Subsequent research into the Alloway of the mid-eighteenth century revealed that the village midwife was a next-door neighbour of the Burnes family, Agnes McLure, wife of the blacksmith, John Tennant, and traditionally the same gossip who ‘keekit in his loof’ foretold the poet’s tempestuous future. Burns was baptised the next day by Ayr Auld Kirk Minister, William Dalrymple, as was recorded by the Session Clerk, David Tennant. Witnesses were John Tennant, (arguably “Auld Glen” of Laigh Corton farm), and James Young.
‘D’rymple mild, D’rymple mild
Tho’ your heart’s like a child
An your life like the new driven snaw’.
The smiddy continued in use until after the Second World War.