In his lecture as part of the weekend’s Robert Burns Scottish Festival in Camperdown, Dr Iain Buckland who specialises in culinary history, said Scotland was having a troubled relationship with alcohol during Robbie Burns’ heyday.

Big upheavals were underway in Scottish society with the Scottish clan system in disarray after the highland clans were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

Many rural workers were leaving the country for jobs in urban centres as the industrial revolution took hold.

There was great inequality between the rich and the poor.

“It was a time of great poverty. Many took refuge in drink,” Dr Buckland said.

“Abuse of alcohol was right across society. The judges, the politicians, the intellectuals, all were heavy drinkers. There was a lot of intellectual life in taverns.”

Dr Buckland said Robbie Burns was a farmer with a great gift for language and many of his poems reflected Scotland’s love at the time for a drink.

More than 40 of Burns’ poems had references to drink such as “A Bottle and a Friend,” Dr Buckland said.

When Burns moved to Edinburgh, his poetry had made him a symbol of Scottish culture and he was “the toast of the town”.

But while some of Burns’ poetry praised the drink, others of his works expressed regret about the effects of the drink on him.

By the 19^th century, many people in Scotland had become aware of the perils of alcohol abuse and a temperance movement was underway, Dr Buckland said.

He said that while he was no expert on the beliefs of the Scottish emigrants who settled in Camperdown from the mid-19^th century, he believed they might have been influenced by the temperance movement that was underway in their homeland.

His talk was one of a number of talks on Scottish culture given on Saturday, with others exploring themes such as “Scottish intrigues in the naming of Camperdown.”