Site of the Boar’s Head Inn where Robert Burns stayed in Laurencekirk

Image: © Adrian Diack Taken: 17 Jul 2025

The photo shows Kirkburn Court, the present-day housing development of flats at the junction of the High Street and Kirkburn in Laurencekirk that was previously in the county of Kincardineshire but is now in Aberdeenshire. The site of the modern block of flats has historic associations, for it was here that the Gardenstone Arms Hotel once stood, which at the time of Burns’ visit was known as the Boar’s Head Inn. Prior to the overnight stay by Robert Burns and Willi Nicol in 1787, Dr. Samuel Johnson and his travelling companion James Boswell had also stayed there on their celebrated tour of 1773 through the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, some 14 years earlier. In more recent times the old coaching inn became somewhat derelict and was then destroyed by fire, with the site then being redeveloped for flats. In 1972 a brown-coloured plaque with gold lettering was installed in a central position in the front of the new development. The plaque reads: GARDENSTONE ARMS HOTEL Here originally the Boar’s Head Inn ROBERT BURNS stayed During his only visit to the land Of his Fathers in Sept 1787. Also meeting place of Glenbervie Burns Memorials Association Which erected this plaque -1972

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