It’s time to sharpen your pencils/keyboards because the Master of Malt Burns Night Poetry Competition is back by popular demand for 2025. 

We’ve run this competition since 2019 and last year five people won bottles of whisky for their creative endeavour. This year there are 10 bottles of whisky ready to be won by 10 poets who wow us with their Burnsian mastery of the art. 

There’s a few rule changes for 2025, mostly as we rally against AI, so please play fair in the spirit of competition. Or else the ghost of Burns will haunt you. We can’t command him or anything but we’re fairly certain he’d see the benefit.  

So here’s the skinny: you need to submit your entries on our dedicated Burns Night poetry competition landing page. Just there. Not on social media. Not in our blog comments. 

Last year we had over 2,000 entries submitted, which is fantastic. But a huge volume of that was AI. We’ll make this very clear: poetry written by AI will not be accepted. Each and every submission will be run through an AI detector. 

We’ve also set a limit of 1,500 characters for each poem and only one entry is permitted per entrant and email address. Also, under no circumstances can you use the phrase ‘amber hue(s)’. And please don’t rhyme ‘whisky’ with ‘frisky’. 

Apart from those rules, let your imagination run wild. Poems will be judged by the discerning team here at Master of Malt. Make us laugh, or if you can’t make us laugh, make us cry; and if you can’t do either then at least do your best to avoid the cliches. 

Win Scotch whisky! Master of Malt’s Burns Night Poetry Competition returns for 2025!

Master of Malt’s Burns Night Poetry Competition returns for 2025!

The winner(s) will win one of the Scotch whiskies below: 

  1. 70cl bottle of Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old
  2. 70cl bottle of Aberfeldy 18 Year Old Sangiovese Red Wine Cask
  3. 70cl bottle of Talisker x Parley – Wilder Seas
  4. 70cl bottle of Bowmore 15 Year Old
  5. 70cl bottle of Chivas Regal 18 Year Old 
  6. 70cl bottle of Laphroaig 10 Year Old Sherry Oak Finish
  7. 70cl bottle of Lochlea Our Barley
  8. 70cl bottle of Meikle Tòir The Sherry One
  9. 70cl  bottle of Timorous Beastie
  10. 70cl bottle of Cutty Sark Prohibition Overproof Blended Scotch Whisky

The prizes are ranked in value order, which means the poem that comes first will win the bottle of Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old and the poem that comes second will bag a bottle of Aberfeldy 18 YO and so on and so forth.

Full T&Cs are below. Good luck and may the muse be with you.

18+ AND UK ONLY. T&CS APPLY. ENTRIES CLOSE 23:59:59 26 JANUARY 2025.