Celebrating Scotland’s links to Liverpool ahead of Burns Night

Burns Night is just around the corner with the life and works of the Scottish poet celebrated on 25 January every year.

To mark the celebration of Burns Night, here’s three ways Scotland has impacted Liverpool…

Dr Duncan

William Henry Duncan had a huge impact on Liverpool and its people.

He was born to Scottish parents in Seel Street on 27 January 1805, in the building that is now home to the legendary Blue Angel, or Razz, nightclub. There is a blue plaque honouring him on the outside of the building.

Duncan was the nephew of Scottish minister, geologist and social reformer Henry Duncan and spent his young life in Scotland under his education. He qualified as a doctor in Edinburgh in 1829 and returned to set up practice as a GP in Rodney Street.

He also worked at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and became a lecturer of law and theory at the Royal Institution. It was around this time he also started work at local dispensaries that had been set up to help people who could not afford to pay for medical treatment.

He became acutely aware of the health inequalities that existed in the city and worked to try and improve the appalling living conditions of his patients, challenging the attitudes of some at the time who thought the less well-off were to blame for their poor health.

Duncan was appointed the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Liverpool in January 1847, the first such appointment.

He worked tirelessly to ensure sanitary conditions were improved to stem the spread of disease in Liverpool. His Report on the Sanitary State of the Labouring Classes in Liverpool raised the issue and he also formed the first public health team in the city.

He visited the sick in their homes and saw first hand the living conditions he worked so hard to improve for people in Liverpool and is widely credited with improving mortality rates in the city.

Duncan died aged just 57 during a holiday in Scotland and is buried in the town of Elgin in the Scottish Highlands.

He is remembered in Liverpool with the William Henry Duncan Building, part of the University of Liverpool.

His name also lives on in the pub Dr Duncan’s which houses an authentic Victorian pharmacy cabinet in his honour.

A team of Macs

In 1892 a dispute over the rent paid at Anfield and some say a personally clash, saw a breakaway by Everton Football Club and their move to Goodison on the other side of Stanley Park.

The remaining founding fathers contacted the football league and requested their new club, Liverpool, be admitted to the Football League. That request was refused but not to be deterred, John Houlding, John McKenna and William Edward Barclay held strong, rebuilt the team and worked their way back up from the Lancashire League.

McKenna was to focus on the team affairs, becoming the first manager of Liverpool FC, and while he was an Irishman, he looked to Scotland for players.

Aided by a Scottish scout he travelled north and took advantage of the fact the professional game there was slower to organise. 

McKenna raided teams like Kilmarnock, Renton, Dumbarton and Cambuslang for players and some of the earliest fixtures played by Liverpool in the 1892-93 season included Joe McQue, John McCartney, Duncan Mclean, Jim McBride, Malcolm McVean and brothers Hugh and Matt McQueen.

Andrew Hannah was the first club captain, signed from Renton who had played for Everton but stayed with the new Liverpool side.

Another Scot, John Miller, became an early hero, although he left after one season over a wage dispute.

Miller, from Dumbarton, scored 22 goals in 21 league games, including three hat-tricks, and became a record holder when he scored five goals in a 7-0 win over Fleetwood Rangers in 1892.

Of course, the Scottish link remained strong with some of Liverpool’s most celebrated managers and players hailing from north of the border. Among them 1960s goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence, defender Alan Hansen, centre back Alex Raisbeck, player then manager Graeme Souness, ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish, Billy Liddell and Ian St John.

And of course, legendary manager Bill Shankly was born in Ayrshire.

The Scotch Piper

The Scotch Piper in Lydiate is the oldest pub in Merseyside and has been serving food and beers to customers since 1320, although the current building is thought to have been built in the 16^th century.

It was originally called the Royal Oak, but the current name is reputed to be in honour of an injured Scottish piper who arrived at the inn sometime in the 18^th century as a result of the Jacobite Rebellion. 

Legend has it he was making his way north back to Scotland but fell in love with and married the inn keeper’s daughter and so the Scotch Piper Inn was born.

The pub isn’t just the oldest in the area, it is one of the most popular and is steeped in history and legend.

It is situated next to the ruins of Lydiate Hall and St Catherine’s Chapel and is rumoured to be linked to the chapel by a secret underground passageway and even visited by a ghost. 

But don’t let that put you off. It’s a gorgeous country pub that serves great beer, puts on live music and hosts a classic car club and biker nights. You can even enjoy bacon and eggs and tea and coffee from 10am-2pm.

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