Burns’ week

Wetherspoon’s pubs will be celebrating the life and poetry of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, by hosting the annual week-long Burns event.

Burns’ week 2023 will be during Monday 23–Sunday 29 January (inclusive), with Burns’ Night itself on Wednesday 25 January.

Customers at pubs in England, Wales and, of course, Scotland, will be able to enjoy some traditional Scottish food and drinks.

To mark the occasion, the pubs will be serving two special meals: Scottish haggis, neeps and tatties, as well as Caledonian burger (two 3oz beef patties, with haggis and whisky sauce, served with chips and six beer-battered onion rings).

Among the drinks choices for the Burns event meal deals will be a special Burns ale, Belhaven’s Robert Burns (4.2% ABV), a chestnut-brown ale, as well as a range of guest ales, Scottish gins, whiskies and beer. The range may include Scottish single-malt whiskies, Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie, Scotland’s BrewDog Elvis Juice beer, as well as Scottish gins Hendrick’s Gin and Edinburgh Gin Rhubarb & Ginger gin liqueur.

Customers taking part in Dry January^® can also enjoy BrewDog’s Punk AF (0.5% ABV), the low-alcohol beer from the Ellon-based brewery. Wetherspoon’s marketing executive, James Vaughan, said: 

“Our Burns’week event is a great opportunity for customers to sample some traditional Scottish food and drinks and to celebrate for longer than just the evening of 25 January itself.”

Haggis supplier…

Grants of Speyside is a long-established family business which has been supplying haggis to Wetherspoon for more than five years.

Stuart Grant, the fifth generation of his family carryingon the tradition today, said: “Haggis is popular throughout the year at Wetherspoon’s pubs across Scotland; however, during Burns’ week, there is a massive increase in demand.”

The company was started in 1824, in Sutherland, by Stuart’s great-great grandfather, John Grant. He was a crofter who sold his own meat to neighbours, from a horse and cart, before opening a butcher’s in the local village with his son (also John).

It was young John’s wife, Jessie, who started, around 1890, making haggis and black pudding – with those same recipes still used today.

Stuart moved the family business in the 1990s to Speyside, to amodern purpose-built factory which employs around 20 staff, making its award-winning haggis and black pudding, as well as a
range of meat products, including speciality sausages and burgers.