I’m hosting BBC Burns Night 2026 BBC One Scotland & iPlayer 7pm Sunday 25th Jan ❤️🙌 Burns died of Flying Gout, or at least that’s how he understood it. So many later critics blamed him for his own premature death - they said he drank too much and that it was his carousing that did for him. Certainly Burns had poor mental health at times, and absolutely went heavy on the bottle from time to time But it seems that it was heart failure that took him from earth at just 37 years old, but not before