Budding singers in West Kilbride took Burns night online to celebrate the life of the bard and his work.

Members of the West Kilbride Sings group held their Big Burns Night In as they could not meet in person.

The group is organised by Rhona Clark, Fiona Coulter, Ross McNeil, Rachel Hynes, Zara Wardrobe and is open to anyone in the village interested in singing and performing.

Rhona said it was important for the group to honour Burns, and the evening was full of fun activities celebrating his work.

She said: “We wanted to have a Burns Night for the group as we began 2021 looking at Scottish songs in WK Sings.

“Who better to dedicate a night to but Robert Burns who left us the legacy of such wonderful poems and songs.

“He is an Ayrshire lad with many connections in the local area and we felt it was the right way to honour him.

“The WK Sings team are passionate about the power of singing and feel dedicating a night to Burns hopefully conveyed that to the young folk in the group.”

Fiona believes the big night was a success, despite participants having to sing and perform together over Zoom.

She explained: “We were so pleased with how the night went. Everyone joined in with the audience participation sections of the evening as we learned some makaton and read along with the poetry.

“There were some great performances from some of our members that were so well prepared, and they made us very proud.

“The children have adapted extremely well to online singing even though we can’t really sing at the same time.

“We do sometimes unmute to sing together, and I think the Burns event worked particularly well because of the mix of communal activity and individual performances.”

The West Kilbride Sings group has big plans for the year ahead, and hopes to hold weekly sessions in the village when restrictions ease.

Zara said: “We are so excited by the enthusiasm and commitment shown by our fantastic members during the last year.

“Through our Songs of Scotland series, we are using fun exercises to build on vocal technique and performance skills.

“As soon as we can meet in person again, our collaboration with Craft Town Scotland will enable us to hold weekly sessions in the community.

“We are very excited for that day, as we will see, hear and experience the benefits of all the hard work from our online sessions.”