Estes Park is currently preparing to host a beloved Scottish holiday that dates back over 200 years. On Saturday, Jan. 24, the third Rocky Mountain Auld Lang Syne will bring a traditional Robert Burns Night celebration to the Holiday Inn, blending poetry, food, music, dance, and Scotch-style whisky into a distinctly Colorado take on one of Scotland’s biggest holidays.
For more than 200 years, Scots around the world have gathered each year to mark the birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, born on Jan. 25, 1759. Known for his satirical verse, lyrical songs, and storytelling in the Scots language, Burns remains best recognized internationally as the author of “Auld Lang Syne,” sung each year on Hogmanay and New Year’s Eve. In Scotland, however, the Burns supper is far more than a single song.
“The Robert Burns dinner is the second-biggest holiday in Scotland,” said Graeme Wallace, a Scottish native and the founder and owner of Hogback Distillery, who organizes the Estes Park event. “Our biggest holiday is New Year’s Day, and then the second biggest part of it is actually the Robert Burns dinner. It’s bigger than Christmas.”
Wallace, who was born in Scotland and lived there and in England before moving to Colorado in 2016, sees Rocky Mountain Auld Lang Syne as both a personal passion project and a cultural bridge. While Burns Night is celebrated widely across the United Kingdom and throughout the Scottish diaspora, Wallace believes it has yet to gain the same traction in the United States as other heritage holidays.
“Much as I love my native country and America, I feel it’s unfortunate that the Scottish heritage isn’t celebrated more in America,” Wallace said. “We have St. Patrick’s Day, which is a very recognized day, even if it’s just people drinking whisky and dressing in green. I feel it’s a shame Scotland’s second-biggest holiday isn’t celebrated in the same way. I’m hoping to be a catalyst.”
That hope is what has carried Rocky Mountain Auld Lang Syne into its third year. Attendance has grown steadily, from about 50 people in the first year to 75 last year, with organizers aiming for roughly 100 guests in 2026. Each year, the event has been hosted in Estes Park, a place Wallace feels has an unexpected kinship with Scotland.
“The weather is different. The landscape is different,” he said. “But I feel like it must have a Scottish history to it. I just feel in my own way we could do a little celebration here, and it might pick up steam.”
The heart of the evening is a formal seated dinner designed around traditional Scottish cuisine, interpreted with a lighter touch. Guests will be welcomed by local pipers upon arrival, before settling in for a multi-course meal prepared by Chef Kristina Olsen. The recipes come from a cookbook titled “The Whisky Kitchen,” which Wallace helped create while running a publishing company in Scotland.
The most anticipated moment of any Burns supper is the arrival of the haggis, a dish that has inspired both devotion and hesitation for centuries. Traditionally, haggis is made primarily of oatmeal with a small amount of offal (“the waste and internal organs of animals”) and is ceremonially piped into the room before being cut and served with whisky.
“Haggis is peasant food,” Wallace said. “In general, it’s oatmeal with a sheep offal, but it could be any animal. First and foremost, it is illegal to use lungs in any food in America. So the dish contains no lungs and only a small amount of offal, making it primarily oatmeal.”
American regulations require some adjustments, and Wallace has also made deliberate choices to make the dish more approachable. This year, haggis will be served as a starter rather than a main course, alongside neeps and tatties. A vegetarian option will also be available.
“The whole thought of eating offal is off-putting to a lot of people,” he said. “So rather than having haggis as a main course, we’re offering it as a starter. I enjoy haggis, but it can even be too rich for me if you have too much.”
Even scaled back, the presentation of the haggis remains central to the experience. From there, the meal continues with a choice of entrees, including smoked salmon or pork loin, before dessert. Two classic Scottish desserts will close the meal: cranachan, a mixture of cream, oats, fruit, and whisky, and tipsy laird, a traditional Scottish trifle.
Coffee and sweets will follow as the program shifts to storytelling. In years past, poetry readings were woven between courses. This year, Wallace is changing the pace, saving most of the poetry for the end of the evening and having Highland dancers perform between courses.
“Traditionally, people celebrate the dinner with a lot of pomp, and it can get a little stuffy,” Wallace said. “I’m trying to lighten that down a bit.”
The formal poetry segment will still include core elements of a Burns supper: a reading known as “The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns,” a toast to the lassies, a response to the lads, and, finally, a communal singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” The evening will conclude with a ceilidh, a lively group dance similar to a square dance, complete with a caller guiding guests.
Whisky remains a throughline throughout the celebration. While there will be no dedicated tastings before or after the event this year, the bar will feature Scotch-style whiskies produced by Hogback Distillery, made in Colorado using traditional methods.
“I do Scotch-style whisky,” Wallace said. “I can’t call it Scotch because it wasn’t made in Scotland.”
Hogback Distillery is currently based in Boulder, but Wallace also operates a tasting room in Estes Park and hopes to eventually relocate the distillery itself to town.
“The goal is to relocate up to Estes Park,” he said. “It would be great if we could open by the end of 2026, but it all depends on finances and scheduling.”
For now, Rocky Mountain Auld Lang Syne stands as a once-a-year gathering that asks guests to slow down, share a meal, and step briefly into another cultural rhythm. Planning for the event begins nearly a year in advance, and participation comes with a firm deadline.
Because the menu is specially prepared, reservations must be made by Jan. 12 to give the kitchen an accurate headcount. While Burns was born on Jan. 25, the celebration traditionally takes place as close to that date as possible, landing this year on the Saturday before.
“It’s very time-consuming, but I really enjoy bringing this event to Estes Park,” Wallace said. “I’d like to keep it going as an annual event and, in the future, potentially have it at the distillery or just have the ceilidh part of it there.”
Learn more about A Rocky Mountain Auld Lang Syne and book your spot before Jan. 12 here.