Instituted 1860 · No. 14 on the Roll of the Robert Burns World Federation
One of the oldest Burns clubs in the world.
We keep Robert Burns, Scottish music and the Scots language alive in Dundee, with suppers, talks and Sunday sessions in our own historic club rooms on Union Street.
1860
Founded in the glow of the 1859 centenary of Burns’ birth.
1861
Our first Burns Supper. We have held one every year since.
1880
The Burns statue we campaigned for is unveiled in Albert Square.
No. 14
Our place on the Roll of the Robert Burns World Federation.
What’s on
Suppers, songs and good company
Tickets are on Eventbrite. Members and associates hear first and pay less.
28
November 2026
Saturday
St Andrew’s Night Dinner
Stephen Gethins MSP, author of Nation to Nation, is our guest speaker. Award-winning Scots tenor Christopher Haggerty and Inverness folk singer Ian Macleod perform, with song from our own members. Three courses and a cheese board, with vegetarian and gluten-free options. Not just for couples.
Stephen Gethins MSP
Guest speaker
Christopher Haggerty
Scots tenor
Ian Macleod
Folk singer
Members £30, guests £35. Only a handful of seats left.
Book with the Secretary13
December 2026
Sunday, 2pm
Music at the Burns Club
Banjo Brian McKay brings a dozen traditional musicians and singers together for two hours of fiddles, whistles, accordions and, of course, banjo. The best way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Four sessions a year.
Tickets on Eventbrite23 & 30
January 2027
Saturdays
Two Burns Suppers
The Club Supper on Saturday 23 January and the Open Burns Supper on Saturday 30 January. Haggis, the Immortal Memory, Tam o’ Shanter and plenty of song, with a three-course dinner plus cheese. 34 seats at each.
Members £30, non-members £35. Book through any club member or email the Secretary.
Book with the SecretaryFirst Sunday of the month, 2pm
Slow sessions
Informal tunes and songs for musicians and singers of every ability. Bring an instrument or just your voice.
Quarterly Sundays, 2pm to 4pm
Music at the Burns Club
A dozen trad musicians and singers. Bar opens at 1pm. These sell out, so members get first call.
Monthly, Wednesday 1pm
Club meeting
Members and associates plan the programme over tea and coffee. New faces welcome.
Quarterly
Singer-songwriter evenings
Original songs, stories and good company by candlelight, led by our member Rhuari Campbell.
Recently at the club
25 October
Our 164th Annual General Meeting reported an increased membership and number of events.
18 October
Billy Kay, a good friend of the club, read from Born in Kyle, his love letter to an Ayrshire childhood.
26 and 27 September
Doors Open Day. Around 60 visitors came to see our new exhibition on the club’s history.
23 August
The Not So Serious Burns Unit returned, with songs and stories from Hamish MacDonald and Liza Mulholland, fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe.
6 June
Sheena Wellington talked and sang about the Bard at the Wighton Centre in the Central Library, with members performing alongside her.
26 April
Kevin Thompson brought The Best O’ Burns, his Edinburgh Fringe hit, to the club.
24 and 31 January
Our first Burns Suppers with women members. Immortal Memories from Professor Bob Steele and Dr Paul Malgrati, and around £2,000 raised for the club.
About the club
166 years, with Burns always in mind
Dundee Burns Club exists to promote Scottish literature and music, with a strong emphasis on the life and works of Robert Burns. We have our own historic club rooms, and we organise Burns Suppers, a St Andrew’s Night dinner, music sessions and talks.
Our members in the 19th century explored Burns’ egalitarian themes. We carry that tradition on, with talks on figures like the Dundee songwriter and activist Mary Brooksbank.
We were an all-male club for most of our history. In October 2025 we opened our membership to women for the first time, and the club is thriving: in 2026 we will have held around two dozen events. All of us are volunteers.
Suppers and dinners
Burns Night and St Andrew’s Night, with toasts, song and recitation.
Music
Sunday afternoon trad sessions and Fringe shows.
Talks and readings
Writers, scholars and storytellers on Burns, Scots and Dundee.
From our history
The club that built a statue
The club was the driving force behind Dundee’s statue of Burns. Members staged a play about the poet’s life at the Theatre Royal to help raise the money, and on 16 October 1880 between 25,000 and 40,000 people packed Albert Square for the unveiling.
One man in full Highland dress marched the whole procession route, hoping to be asked up to recite his new poem in honour of the statue. William McGonagall never got the call.
Read our historyRobert Burns, 1759 to 1796
Rabbie came to Dundee once
In September 1787, at the end of his Highland tour with his friend William Nicol, Burns passed through Dundee on his way back to Edinburgh. It was his only visit, and he called it a low-lying but pleasant town.
Farmer, father of twelve, song collector and political radical, he became Scotland’s national poet. Find out why his words still fill rooms like ours every January.
Discover Robert BurnsThe rank is but the guinea’s stamp,
The man’s the gowd for a’ that.A Man’s a Man for a’ That, 1795
Membership
Join the club
Everyone who loves Burns, Scots song or a good night in good company is welcome. The club runs on members’ subscriptions and income from events. Not ready to join? You can still support the club.
Member
£65 a year
- A vote at the AGM and a say in how the club is run
- Stand for the committee
- Early notice and discounted tickets for events
- The newsletter, Burns News
Associate member
£25 a year
- Early notice and discounted tickets for events
- The newsletter, Burns News
- Ask to use the club rooms for meetings
How to join
Download the form, read the club rules, then send your form to the Secretary or bring it along to an event. Renewals fall due each January.
Application form (PDF)Club rules (PDF)Email the Secretary37 Union Street
Our club rooms
We are one of the very few Burns clubs in the world to own our own premises. Music, dinners, Burns Suppers, theatre and a place to meet friends and talk: the rooms do it all, and our licensed bar serves members and guests at events.
The building dates from around 1846 and is Category B listed. We have been here for around a hundred years, and the decor has changed little in decades. The brass letters on the floor below are a remnant of dentist J.D. Cameron, and the artist Pete Horobin kept his Data Attic in the building until 2011.
Our library holds an important collection of Burns and Scottish poetry, much of it Victorian, along with archive material we are now cataloguing. Next, we plan to create the Brooksbank Room, telling the story of Dundee’s writers.
Charities, community groups and families also use the rooms for meetings and gatherings. Ask the Secretary about hiring them.
The club’s painted bust of Burns keeps an eye on proceedings.
- Main room
- About 40, bar style
- Burns Supper
- Up to 34 at the table
- Library
- Seats about 8
- Pool room
- Future exhibition space
Newsletter
Burns News
Photos and stories from our musical, literary and social nights, plus short pieces on Scottish culture and the club’s past. The club has counted many of Dundee’s literary and political figures among its members. Each issue works on phones, tablets and computers.
Get Burns News by email
Find us
Visit and contact
Dundee Burns Club37 Union Street
Dundee DD1 4BS
We are on the second floor of a city centre tenement and the stairs are steep. Get in touch before your visit if you need help with access.
Open in Google MapsCommittee 2026/27
- President
- Jimmy Black
- Vice President
- Mike Arnott
- Secretary
- Graham Ogilvy
- Treasurer
- John Lovie
- Librarian
- Dan Rutherford
- Curator
- Lindsay McGregor
- Auditors
- Jacqueline McGregor, George Fyfe
- Committee
- Doug Chalmers, Bruce McKenzie