Museum to Burns misses out on Dylan

SCOTTISH authors Alasdair Gray and Liz Lochhead are expected to launch the £21 million Robert Burns Birthplace museum as hopes faded that Bob Dylan would headline celebrations of Scotland's latest culural attraction.

It is expected that the Alloway complex - which includes two shops, a caf and restaurant - will attract 80,000 visitors and 1.5?million in revenue a year after it opens to the public on 1 December, before its official launch in January.

Dylan, the US folk star inspired by Burns' songs, had been invited to the launch. But the chances of the singer, who owns a 2?million home in the Highlands, making a detour to Scotland in the year that marks his 70th birthday now appear slim.

Museum director Nat Edwards said poet and playwright Lochhead and the Lanark author Gray were most fitting because they celebrated a tradition of Scots language and poetry.

He added: "With admissions (8 per person for three-day ticket but free to NTS members], retail, catering and functions, we hope to generate 1.5m a year to cover everything."

But Dr Gerald Carruthers, director of the Robert Burns Centre at the University of Glasgow, said: "The dream ticket would be Bob Dylan, a great music person, and a great poet. I heard that's what they wanted but it is unlikely, sadly."