He became an avid collector of Burnsiana and put together the largest collection of published in the world at the time, that was eventually purchased by the local Kilmarnock Corporation and housed in the Kay Park Burns Museum.

In 1839 he obtained a job at a booksellers in Saltcoats and published a weekly periodical, the 'Ayrshire Inspirer,' containing work by local poets, writers, etc.

[4] He took over the printing business of Hugh Crawford & Son in Kilmarnock in 1845 which had previously moved to No.2, King Street from the Cross and later expanded to No.6 as well.

Poetry, school textbooks, programmes for the ordination of clergy, a guide to the Crystal Palace exhibition, and Archibald MacKay's popular 'History of Kilmarnock,' the story of Lady Flora Hasting's were amongst the works.

[4] Robert Irvine the bookseller and James M'Kie were good friends and both were described as of "irascible temperament, but were at heart 'tender as men, and gentle as women.

The necessary funds were raised by public donations and the then Corporation of Kilmarnock placed the collection in the Burns Monument Museum in the Kay Park that they had purchased.

[17] M'Kie's collection of Burns books, paintings, manuscripts and general Burnsiana grew to become the world's largest collections of its kind of the bard's works at the time,[18] with between 600 and 700 volumes, housed in a special extension built in 1870 known as the 'Ayrshire Burns Library' adjoining his home in Kilmarnock, 'Alpha House' in Kings Street.

[18] As stated, the town corporation purchased the 'M'Kie Collection' and it was displayed in the Burns Monument Museum in the 1880s, the construction of which McKie had been largely instrumental in establishing in 1879.

[20] David Sneddon prepared a catalogue of M'Kie's collection which runs to 160 pages with over 1300 items, including 400 editions of the poet's works.