Inside Ackroyd’s Scottish Bakery’s Tartan-Filled Burns Supper

People from across metro Detroit gathered together at Urbanrest Brewing Company on Thursday evening in celebration of Scotland’s annual Burns Supper. The event hosted in partnership with Ackroyd’s Scottish Bakery of Redford drew a diverse crowd dawning all sorts of gear from colorful wool tartans to sporrans and even a few Scottish bonnets.

The feast, which falls each year on January 25, celebrates the 18th-century Romantic poet and lyricist Robert “Rabbie” Burns and dates back as far as 1801. As part of Burns Night friends often gather for small formal dinners or in the case of Ackroyd’s, as part of a larger event. The meal is best known for its centerpiece haggis, an offal-filled savory pudding made from mixture of sheep’s heart, liver, lungs, onion, oatmeal, fat, and spices stuffed in a sheep’s stomach; it’s also the subject of one of Burns’ most well-known poems called Address to a Haggis.

Due, in part, to laws barring the use of sheep’s lungs its rarely served here in the U.S., but Ackroyd’s does its own rendition of haggis that’s legal here in the states. At the height of the evening, third-generation owner Meghan Ackroyd performed the ceremonial cutting of the haggis between recitations, bagpiping, and step dancing performances. Take in the full, bonny scene in the gallery below.

Michelle and Chris Gerard

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