Mearns Connections is a celebration of a land that inspired the cultural icons of James Leslie Mitchell (Lewis Grassic Gibbon) and Joan Eardley.

“A rich and cultivated, but still unenclosed country” is how Robert Burns described the Mearns in the historic county of Kincardineshire, the land of his forefathers, when he visited the area in 1787.

The poet’s father, William Burnes (original spelling) was born at Clochnahill, a few miles south of Stonehaven. As young men, William, and his elder brother Robert, left the Mearns together, driven southward by poor farming opportunity, a sense of adventure and hope of better fortune. William arrived in Ayrshire, via Edinburgh, where he met and married Agnes Brown who gave birth to Scotland’s Universal Bard on the 25th of January, 1759. The life force of Robert Burns emanates from the fields of the Mearns, the cradle of his family.

Set in Arbuthnott (Kinraddie in the novel), Sunset Song, published in 1932 by Lewis Grassic Gibbon,  is widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century, if not the most important. It is the first part of a trilogy,  A Scots Quair.  The novel recounts the life story of Chris Guthrie, a young woman growing up in a repressive farming community in the northeast of Scotland in the early part of the 20th century and the effect of war on her as an individual and on the community in which she lived. In 2005, Sunset Song was voted Scotland's favourite book, in a poll announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The clifftop village of Catterline, its surrounding fields but particularly its rugged and often wild coastline provided the inspiration for Joan Eardley, an artist of international renown. Her work can be found in the National Galleries of Scotland as well as many other galleries across the world. She became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1963.

Mearns Connections is a celebration of a land that inspired the cultural icons of James Leslie Mitchell (Lewis Grassic Gibbon) and Joan Eardley. It is fascinating to consider that, in the opinion of many, Scotland’s greatest prose writer, its greatest artist and, through the genetic blueprint of his forefathers, Scotland’s greatest poet, drew inspiration from a fertile parcel of land and rocky coastline in the North East of Scotland, almost within view of each other.

If time permits, take the opportunity to walk in their footsteps and to reflect on how our lives have been enriched by them all in their varied genres and how much they achieved in their short lives. The rich, red clay and the restless seas of the Mearns continue to inspire talent in all its forms.

Photos of The Mearns

The Grassic Gibbon Centre is located in north-east Scotland, 2 hours north of Edinburgh and 1/2 hour south of Aberdeen

More information at www.grassicgibbon.com