By Brittany Van Dalen
CAYUGA—On January 25, 2024 Ruthven Park hosted its second annual Robbie Burns Supper event, celebrating the birthday of famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.
The Thompson family of Ruthven Park are of Scottish descent and kept the tradition of many Scottish customs, including celebrating Burns Night. In 2023 we held our inaugural Robbie Burns Supper event, which was a great success! Tickets sold out within weeks and were well received by all who attended. We were very excited to make this an annual event going forward.
This year, Ruthven Park expanded its seating and welcomed 75 guests into the historic Coach House for an evening of music, highland dancing, and a catered dinner. The Coach House was decorated by Sash & Garland with a nod to the highlands of Scotland. Guests enjoyed listening to a traditional bagpipe performance by local talent Landon Italiano and a recitation of the Address to a Haggis poem and Selkirk Grace by Andy Mitchell. Ruthven Park welcomed back fiddle and acoustic duo Alana and Leigh Cline and enjoyed a special highland dance performance from Sandra Bald Jones Highland Dance Studio performer Caitlin.
A fabulous dinner with Scottish fare was provided by Debb’s Cuisine on Queen and included cock-a-leekie soup, roast beef, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, neeps, roasted tartan vegetables, dinner roll, sampling of haggis, and a typsy laird with raspberry jam, sponge cake, and whipped cream for dessert. The mansion was exhibited to share the Thompson’s connection to Scotland and some famous Scottish traditions such as Hogmanay and listening to one of Burns’ most famous works, Auld Lang Syne.
We would like to thank our sponsors FirstOntario Insurance Brokers and Bruce and Laurie MacDonald and the staff and volunteers who made this event possible. We look forward to bringing the Highlands back to Ruthven Park in January 2025!
For those who missed our Robbie Burns event and would like to experience Scottish and Irish music, dancing, and games, save the date for our second annual Celtic Festival on Saturday, September 14, 2024!
