SHAKESPEARE is rightly admired and venerated on this side of the Border, but the Scots have a genuine love for their national poet.

Robert, or Rabbie, Burns is more than just a dusty bard of school textbooks. His songs, like his life, are rife with passionate and adventurous stories. Some are tragic, but as many are uproariously comic.

The more raucous lyrics - such as his most celebrated verse, Tam O' Shanter - are tongue-in-cheek morality tales in which roguish heroes spill out of drinking dens only to be chased by demonic hallucinations, angry wives or their even angrier husbands.

Burns' own rampant appetites brought his life to an abrupt end at the age of 37 - broke as debts piled up from his failing farmland and the maintenance due to the four different mothers of his 12 children.

The official cause of death is recorded as rheumatic fever, but, as another Scots literary legend, Robert Louis Stevenson, later remarked: "Robert Burns died of being Robert Burns".

Although it raised a few eyebrows at the time, it was perfectly fitting that Pete Doherty - that infamous lush of the modern age - starred at last year's Burns festival with a set full of loving interpretations of the Bard's ballads.

This year's event, the Burns 'An 'A That festival, is held from May 23-28, with gigs and poetry readings at venues across Ayrshire from acts such as Idlewild, Deacon Blue and The Saw Doctors.

The area's star hotel, the Westin Turnberry Resort, is one of the grand old icons of the Scottish hospitality industry, set a step back from the Ayrshire coast with stunning views across the water to the isle of Ailsa Craig.

The hotel is all about old style luxury, and anyone who has watched the sun set from the resort's flagship restaurant during a silver service six course meal will tell you how Turnberry earned its five stars.

Turnberry's grand oak-panelled hallways bear testament to the hotel's status as one of the world's elite golf resorts. A gallery of framed photographs show anyone and everyone from Bill Clinton to Ronnie Corbett playing a round at Turnberry.

The resort has two championship courses, a nine-hole course and the recently opened Colin Montgomery Links Academy.

Away from the greens, the hotel prides itself on an impressive range of indoor and outdoor activities. Guests can try trout fishing, clay pigeon shooting, mountain biking, quad biking, or simply laze around in the spa, with a stint in the sauna followed by a gentle swim.

A short stroll down the road is Culzean Castle - a formidable clifftop fortress built by the endearingly barmy tenth Earl of Cassilis, Sir David Kennedy. Visitors to the 18th century property are invited in through the armoury - a slightly terrifying room decorated with the biggest private weapons collection outside Buckingham Palace.

As you step through the door, you're confronted with a neat line of five mini-canons, all looking cocked and ready to blast. The walls are hung with hundreds of blades assembled in intricate fan motifs like an over-the-top police knife amnesty photo shoot. The message appears to be: "Welcome or else!"

After hundreds of years of aristocratic ownership, the estate was handed over to the National Trust. But the family, still smitten with all things military, gifted the top floor of Culzean to Dwight D Eisenhower as a lasting thank you for the commander's role in the Second World War.

There is plenty more to do along the Ayshire coast, but this is Burns country and iconic images of the bard's face crop up on roadsigns everywhere.

His birthplace, a simple cottage at Alloway, has now been restored, with a museum next door. Across the road is the Burns Heritage Park, an ornamental garden featuring the Burns Monument, the Tam O'Shanter Experience centre and the Brig O' Doon.

You can learn all you need to know about the man and his works by visiting the tourist sites, but to get close to the true Burns spirit, follow the sound of the fiddle to one of Alloway's pubs for an old fashioned ceilidh and a few whiskies. Rabbie would approve.

The Westin Turnberry Resort, Turnberry, Ayrshire. Prices start at £159 per room per night. 01655-331000 or www.turnberry.co.uk

Culzean Castle is at Maybole, South Ayrshire. 08701-181945 or www.nts.org.uk.

Burns National Heritage Park at Murdoch's Lone, Alloway. 01292-443700, or www.burnsheritagepark.com.

The Burns 'An 'A That festival May 23-28 at various locations in Ayr. For more information, visit www.burnsfestival.com