“When Rob was at the height of his fame he wrote the imaginative poem Tam O Shanter which he considered to be his best work. Part of the story came to him from the legend in the village of Alloway that the Auld Kirk was haunted. The fact of this superstition came from a memorable day when one of my brother John’s bullocks called Clootie strayed into the Auld Kirk and his horns became entangled between the pews. The beast gave out such unearthly bellowing that some simple people became terrified and declared that the Kirk was haunted.
When Clootie was released the horn which had become stuck in the pew was left behind and was collected and played with as a toy trumpet by the children of the village. When the family moved out of Ochiltree the horn which the children called the clootie horn was taken with them and after being fitted with a silver mouthpiece it came into use in the village by the town crier who went round early in the morning waking the people up to go to work. Rob does not bring the clootie horn story in to Tam O’Shanter but he starts the poem with ‘Tam’s ain wife Kate’ who prophesied that ‘late or soon thou would be found deep drowned in Doon or catch’d wi warlocks in the mirk, by Alloway’s auld haunted kirk.’ ”
This was taken from an account recorded by the great, great nephew (who spent his entire life in Glasgow) of the John Tennant referred to in the story. This was the same John Tennant who signed the Parish Register as witness to the registration of Robert Burns’s birth.