Currently, the cottage is under the ownership and protection of the National Trust for Scotland, and forms part of a larger Robert Burns Birthplace Museum also located in Alloway.

[1] The cottage has had a number of uses, including a spell as a pub, run by a Mr Goudie from Riccarton who saw the opportunity to exploit Burns's developing reputation.

Before Keats arrived, he wrote to a friend that "one of the pleasantest means of annulling self is approaching such a shrine as the cottage of Burns – we need not think of his misery – that is all gone – bad luck to it – I shall look upon it all with unmixed pleasure.

Most of the extension which was constructed at this time was destroyed, leaving the cottage to be returned to its original appearance during the period Burns had lived there.

[8] Burns Cottage is a long, low, thatched building which fronts onto the main street of Alloway, consisting of four rooms, two for human habitation and two for farm livestock.