Scottish Flashback: Piping in the haggis, 1968

WITH Burns Night fast approaching our flashback looks back at a very non-traditional Burns Night.

A haggis is piped aboard a BUA aircraft, 1968. Picture: TSPL

Bound for Turnhouse Airport in Edinburgh from London, a BUA aircraft prepared a special surprise for its passengers.

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The ‘flying Burns Supper’ saw the haggis specially piped aboard by piper Corporal Archibald Cross as flight attendants Alice Mulholland, Margaret Mackinnon Dow, Jennifer Roger and Anne Lawson carried the precious cargo.

The passengers were then invited to enjoy their very own special meal celebrating the famous Scots bard as they flew back home to Scotland.

The first Burns suppers were held in memoriam at Ayrshire at the end of the 18th century by Robert Burns’ friends on 21 July, the anniversary of his death, and have been a regular occurrence ever since.

The first Burns club was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns. They held the first Burns supper on what they thought was his birthday, 29 January 1802, but in 1803 they discovered in Ayr parish records that his date of birth was 25 January 1759. Since then, suppers have been held on 25 January.

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