A new event for Marymass this year will be a Robert Burns-themed short walking tour of Irvine.

Entitled 'Apprentice Lint Dresser to Poet of All Humanity', the Discovery Group narrative tour will be led by Tristan Lindsay.

The events will take a look at Rabbie's nine-month stay in Irvine, visiting some key sites from his time in the town. The walks will take around 50 minutes.

There will be four walks in total, all leaving from outside the Porthead Tavern in Irvine High Street.

They will take place at 2pm on Tuesday, August 15, 7pm on Thursday, August 17, 2pm on Tuesday August 23 and 7pm on Thursday, August 24.

The 22-year-old farmer Burns arrived in Irvine in 1781 to learn the art of flax dressing - providing the fibres for making linen.

There, he spent much of his time in the bookshop of William Templeton and, despite an accident with a candle burning down his workplace, he remained in the town until the spring of 1782.

It's been said Rabbie came to Irvine as a farmer - and left as a poet.