Forum Topic

Burns Night Supper

Can anybody tell me of a venue in West London that is holding a Burns Night supper and dance.

Linda F Wright ● 7417d19 Comments

Thanks Barbara and everyone else who has come up with ideas. have now found the 'full monty' at a Masonic centre in Cheshunt. Watch out that haggis!!

Linda F Wright ● 7402d

I used to  go to a Burns night at the Duke of York just off the Ealing Road and last time one of my neighbours read  the Burns poem to "pipe in" the haggis, so you could try there.

Barbara Dudley ● 7403d

Sarah mirror on the end of a stick eh? - I live and learn. I thought that the army made great play out of all ranks having highly polished boots for just this type of inspection ;-) Nowadays we worry about people taking inappropriate pictures via a camera within a mobile phone. How our innocence has been lost.

Gareth Evans ● 7412d

Linda: Don't give up finding a Burns Supper Night in London. Hopefully you will be lucky.The Heston and Isleworth Rotary Club..who meet at the Osterley Hotel on the Great West Road had a Burns Supper last year...with a friend of mine..John Knox...doing the thespian "Robbie Burns recitation" and a Haggis procession and dressing. See the link below. http://hestonisleworth-rotary.org.uk/burnsnight2004.htmAlso: Scottish friendship clubs in London could direct you ..or Whats On Magazine...try the Scottist Church in Knightsbridge (end of Beauchamp Place)..for information..they have ceiladh dancing classes in the Ballroom. There is a major Caledonian/Scottish  Club is London..somewhere.I hadn't realised till my recent Xmas Hebridean trip...that Ian was Gaelic for John  but knew I that Dunedin in New Zealand was gaelic for Edinburgh."Cummera Ha" is  hello.  What is "bye for now"?  !!

Jim Lawes ● 7413d

That was lovely Gerry, now all we need is to dress you in a kilt and how are you on bagpipes? We could have our own celebration!Having been to a very good Burns Night a few years ago in Salisbury every year my husband's very diluted Scottish blood rushes to his head and he want's to repeat it! Have found a couple of places locally but neither do the 'whole thing' either the dance or the meal (and I don't think they have the piper). Perhaps I'll just buy a haggis and serve him that - at least I have the address to the haggis in English so I could say that!!

Linda F Wright ● 7413d

LINDA, have you found a nice venue for your Burn's supper/dance, after all the muckle prattle on this site? Do hope you enjoy the haggis ceremony again, especially the traditional "Toast to the Lassies". Countless years ago, when I took my own bonnie lassie to a Burn's Nicht, the lassies' toast was sung by a man with a fine tenor voice, which brought many a happy tear to the ladies present. This is what he sang: "O, my luve's like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in JuneO, my luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly play'd in tuneAs fair art thou, my bonie lassSo deep in luve am IAnd I will luve thee still, my DearTill a' the seas gang dryTill a' the seas gang dry, my DearAnd the rocks melt wi' the sun!O I will luve thee still, my DearWhile the sands o' life shall run."Have a lovely nicht oot!  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 7414d

Yes, where is JIM?The thought of our JIM in a kilt amuses me. ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 7414d

If Jim comes back wearing a kilt - you could always ask him?I did say, ask.

Sarah Felstead ● 7414d

I heard that they soaked everything in wode?There is a celtic warriors site and there may be the answer you seek there?http://members.tripod.com/celtic_warrior/

Sarah Felstead ● 7414d

SARAH, what do they wear under their kilts - if anything? If I were a Scottish soldier on parade, I don't think I'd like my sargeant-major looking up m'kilt - why, I'd sock him on his sporran for taking such a liberty! The cheek of it! :-o

Gerry Tan ● 7414d

I remember my Dad telling me about the inspection of Scottish troops where the inspecting officer has a mirror on the end of a stick so he can check under their kilts to make sure that they are in true traditional dress?

Sarah Felstead ● 7415d

GerryJust some thoughts, but preserving meat by air drying, salting, smoking or encasing within animal casing, sometimes with additional products to make sausage, haggis, or salami type products, would have been used from almost the dawn of time. When man (in whatever state of evolution) first hunted beasts for food, he needed to preserve food in order to provide throughout the year. Experts believe that the Sumerians were the first to preserve meat by encasing it within animal casing. The Sumerians lived in what is now Iraq, about 5,000 years ago. Various forms of what we now recognise to be bagpipes have been used by various cultures across Europe for centuries, possibly spread by the Roman or Greek empires. It is likely that the Sumerians or Egyptians invented the earliest form of bagpipes. I’m not up on the history of the kilt but I doubt that what we recognise as a kilt, originated in Ireland.

Gareth Evans ● 7415d

Ah, to be sure now - I tink yer right ANGUS! ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 7415d

[I wonder who invented the kilt?]The Irish perhaps?http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-52,GGLD:en&q=tartans

Angus James ● 7415d

I knew an Albanian once, who told me that in the Macedonian region of the Mediterranean they have a sausage type haggis containing lamb(no beef), beans, olives wheat, chopped almonds etc. They've made it for centuries there, whereas the Scottish haggis is a relatively recent invention. He also went on to say that the bagpipes were made and used in the Balkans for centuries before Christ and that the Scots borrowed the pipes some considerable time after the Romans came to Britain. I wonder who invented the kilt? Or tartan for that matter!! Ah, I love urban myths!! ;-o

Gerry Tan ● 7415d

>http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/address_to_a_haggis.htmJust for you Lynda, with a translation into language of the Sassenache.

Angus James ● 7417d

Thanks Angus.I'm looking for the full works so I'll give the Winning Post a ring. I don't think the Ealing town hall venue comes with the address to the haggis etc.Sarah, there is a reply for you on the Ealing site.Thank you all.

Linda F Wright ● 7417d

>http://www.ripeuk.co.uk/I also believe most town halls or civic centers also hold Burns night supper and dances.The best in the west is supposed to be Ealing. In Hounslow The coach and Horses, I think the Winning Post also does a Burns night supper and dance but on this one I'm not to sure. Best to check it out first. They sure do a cracking St.Paddy's night.

Angus James ● 7417d

Do you mind if I ask what goes on at a Burns night supper?

Sarah Felstead ● 7417d