He studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic, graduated from the University of Westminster, and spent much of his forty-year career spanning from 1925 to 1965, in the Department of Ethnography at the British Museum in London.
He briefly served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
During his long career Burland was a contributor to many publications, including the journal Natural History.
Burland's first work was Gods of Mexico (1948), a hitherto unexplored subject for which he researched pre-Columbian religious manuscripts.
Burland is also noted for his research into the occult as related to mythology and magical practices.