HE is Scotland's national poet, who penned his famous verses while working as a farmer or as a customs and exciseman.

But now Robert Burns can add another career to his CV after the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) appointed the world-renowned poet the title of honorary chartered surveyor in recognition of the training he received in his teens.

Burns was trained as a land surveyor by Hugh Rodger, a celebrated geometrician, while at school in Kirkoswald, in Ayrshire.

Although he never took up the profession, it is thought he put his skills to use while a tenant farmer.

Farmers in Burns' time would have been expected to be able to draw field plans and maps and would have needed to become acquainted with all the tools of a surveyor.

The RICS says Burns's surveying skills were his only professional qualification, and has decided to include the bard among its ranks.

RICS director for Scotland, Sarah Speirs, said: "In Scotland we are working closely with the Government to ensure our international efforts complement Scotland's needs.

"In awarding The Bard honorary membership, the RICS wished to acknowledge Burns's professional training as a land surveyor and where better than in Scotland, in front of a global audience to acknowledge yet another talent to this most talented of Scotsmen."

A number of surveying chains used by the poet are held by the Writer's Museum in Edinburgh, which also has a letter from his eldest son Robert stating his father was a "professional land surveyor".

A surveying chain's handle is held in the collection of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway. It will now be joined by the RICS award.

Amy Miller, the museum's curator, said: "It's known that he studied land surveying when he was at school. He did not take it up as a career, but he was more than just a man of letters and poems."

Burns was officially inducted into the institute at the RICS Governing Council dinner in Edinburgh last night.