New Research reveals the centuries-old roots of Scotland’s most famous haggis dish and poem
Professor Gerard Carruthers of Glasgow University and Dr Paul Malgrati.
by Áine Allardyce
“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin’-race!”
These immortal lines from Robert Burns’s “To a Haggis” have echoed across dining rooms for more than two centuries.
But new research by Professor Gerard Carruthers and Dr Paul Malgrati shows that this playful tribute to Scotland’s national dish is far more than a culinary curiosity, in fact it is the culmination of centuries of cultural, political and literary history.
A paper by Professor Carruthers and Dr Malgrati entitled, “Scottish Food Patriotism and the Literary Antecedents of Robert Burns’s ‘To a Haggis’,” reveals how Burns’s 1786 poem transformed haggis from a humble peasant dish into a powerful symbol of Scottish identity.
The research traces the poem’s roots through medieval epics, Renaissance satire and Enlightenment verse, uncovering a tradition where food became a battleground for national pride and social values.
The details of the findings will be presented at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference being held on the 17 January 2026, hosted in collaboration with the National Trust for Scotland Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.
The year’s conference at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre will explore and celebrate the 225th anniversary of the Burns Supper, which took place in 1801 on the 5th anniversary of the death of Scotland’s national bard.
Professor Gerard Carruthers, Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature, the University of Glasgow, said: “Burns didn’t just write about haggis, he took an existing national symbol and supercharged it so that it became an international icon of Scottish culture. He was simultaneously a brilliant appropriator and an innovator. We see this in general with ‘To a Haggis’ but also in his little-noticed reading and utilisation of Allan Ramsay’s list of foreign food against which the Scottish delicacy is to be set.”
Dr Paul Malgrati, Lecturer in Northern Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands, said: “‘To a Haggis’ distills almost four hundred years of Scottish self-consciousness about diet, from oaten bread to offal meat. Burns’s bon vivant bravado may seem a bit of harmless fun today, but in his time it served as a rhetorical weapon, not only to uphold Scottish peasant pride but also, and more controversially, to recast Scotland as a hearty nation, keen on food and flesh, against the grain of religious puritanism.”
Key Insights from the Research:
- Burns’s poem is mock-heroic and irreverent, elevating a rustic dish with sacrilegious “grace” while rejecting foreign luxuries like ragouts and fricassees.
- The work builds on earlier writers such as John Barbour, Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, who celebrated Scottish frugality and local resources against English and French gastronomic snobbery.
- Far from being a spontaneous ode, “To a Haggis” reflects class based nationalism, turning the “haggis-fed rustic” into an allegory for “Auld Scotland” itself.
In their paper, Professor Carruthers and Dr Malgrati finish by pointing out that the earliest advocates of the Burns Supper format were Freemason and militiamen who raised its profile and popularity around the globe in the 18th century.
They conclude: “Burns Supper rose from within a distinct demographic – one that reflected Burns’s unique yet historically grounded adaptation of Scotland’s tradition of food patriotism. That such a strange feast of cooks and ingredients could inspire a global celebration – observed by millions from Alloway to Auckland and Atlanta – is hardly the least remarkable chapter in the world’s cultural recipe book.”
The research by Professor Carruthers and Dr Malgrati is part of the project ‘The Burns Supper in History and Today’, funded by the Shaw Fund at the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow.
Building on this research, in 2026 on the 225th anniversary of the first Burns Supper, the Centre has expanded its research to capture the full diversity of this remarkable tradition called ‘The Burns Supper at 225 Years: Scottish Tradition, Global Reinvention’.
Building on “The Burns Supper in History and Today”, the CRBS’s Professor Pauline Mackay and Dr Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman are calling on people worldwide to help create a crowdsourced archive of Burns Suppers events. It is hoped the new archive will feature poems and songs performed at Burns Suppers around the world as well as videos, photographs, recipes and clothing worn, as well as, the ways in which it has been adapted to incorporate different cultures which can be seen in everything from haggis pakora in Scotland to Reggae-infused Burns celebrations in Jamaica.
The first Burns Supper was held in 21 July 1801 to mark the 5th anniversary of the death of Robert Burns.
Led by the Reverend Hamilton Paul, a group of friends and admirers of the bard met at Burns Cottage in Alloway to raise a glass to the memory of their friend and quote some of his work. They didn’t know it at the time, but this was the first Burns supper.
Haggis and sheep’s heid were on the menu, while they recited ‘To a Haggis’ and sang some of the great man’s songs.
Today more than 9.5 million people around the world now celebrate Burns Night each year on 25 January, the poet’s birthday.
Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference
Date: Saturday 17 January 2026
Time: 09:30 – 16:00
Venue: University of Glasgow, Advanced Research Centre, 11 Chapel Lane
The University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference, hosted in collaboration with the National Trust for Scotland Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, will take place on Saturday 17th of January 2026 at the Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre (ARC). This year, our theme is the Burns Supper: a global phenomenon that celebrates its 225th anniversary in 2026. Delegates can look forward to exciting updates on new directions in Burns studies, as well as a musical performance by the talented Scottish musician Ellie Beaton (2025 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year).