The land around the famous cottage where Robert Burns spent his formative years is to be restored to how it looked in his youth.

A new scheme, funded by Burns fans from the USA, aims to make the land surrounding the cottage where he grew up resemble what he would have grown up with.

The land at the two-bedroom family cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire, will include crops and flowers originally harvested by his father William Burns.

It is to be financed by benefactors to the National Trust for Scotland Foundation in the US.

The cottage welcomes 179,000 visitors annually, but soon these tourists will be able to see the crops, fruits and vegetables grown there hundreds of years ago.

The funding will "fully realise the vision" that William, who lived from 1721 to 1784, had for his small farm around the cottage.

An anonymous donor now has pledged £22,000 to complete work at Burns historic birthplace.

The second and final phase of the project will include clearing and extending woodland paths, which have not been open to the public before.

The cottage's meadow will be seeded with wildflowers, additional raised vegetable beds will be installed, and signage will be upgraded.

In the orchard "heritage" varieties of apple trees will be grown, as well as pear trees and berries.

Simon Skinner, the chief executive of the NTS, said: "Burns is an inspiration the world over and his verse has touched the lives of millions, to the extent that people of all nations will come together to sing his words to Auld Lang Syne at the New Year.

"It is therefore entirely fitting that the project to restore and enhance his birthplace should rely so much on international generosity - especially from the US where so many of his kith and kin ultimately settled, along with the ideas he planted.

"We hope that the many Americans who love Burns and see Scotland as a spiritual and ancestral home will help us achieve our aims."