RESIDENTS of West Linton and Carlops came together virtually at the weekend to celebrate Robert Burns with a Burns Night In.

The two-hour-long programme on Saturday (January 29) saw people from the local area and further afield take part in the online celebration.

Heleen Kennedy, of the Village Centre, said: “Folk from all airts and pairts and all ages came together (even though we weren’t together) to enjoy an evening of song, poetry, music, haggis, whisky, catching up with auld acquaintances and aw that on Zoom.

“The two-hour programme was a good combination of traditional and contemporary offerings, and the technical support by Ben Gibbs made sure that everything ran smoothly.

“All in all it was a heart-warming, fun, sometimes moving, and successful evening.”

The haggis was carried through the village by West Linton postman Martin and was piped in by Ben Gibbs. The address to the haggis was made by Colin McNab and his children, Matthew and Sophie, in Cannes, France.

An address to the vegetarian haggis was made by Karen Westbrook.

There were a number of musical performances and recitations, including from Carlops brothers Murray and Magnus Campbell from their homes in California.

And a multilingual reading of Burns’ Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin was made by West Linton residents and those connected with the village – with the bard translated into English, Gaelic, Farsi, Swedish, Dutch, Romanian, and Spanish.

The videos from Saturday can be found on the West Linton Village Centre’s Facebook page.