A charity that runs a farmhouse where Robert Burns wrote some of his most famous works has warned members and donors to be vigilant after a major data breach.

The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust is one of an estimated 1,500 charities that uses software provided by Beacon CRM which suffered a cyberattack at the end of July.

The charity, which runs the Ellisland farm near Dumfries, has now written to supporters confirming that membership and contact details were stored on a database that was penetrated.

In an email, it stressed that banking card details were not stored with Beacon CRM, but it warned that contact information could be used by scammers.

It said: "We're getting in touch to let you know about a cyber-security incident affecting Beacon, the company whose software we use to hold and manage contact information and membership details for people connected to Robert Burns Ellisland Trust.

"This is not a failure of any of our security measures. The Beacon servers were attacked directly; this means that all organisations that use Beacon will be affected to some lesser or greater degree."

While emphasising that banking details were not stored on the database, it warned supporters to be vigilant for scammers attempting to impersonate the trust.

The Burns charity is the latest to confirm it has been affected by the Beacon hack.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Refugee Council said it had been hit by the data leak, as has the Scottish Women's Institutes, homeless charity the Cyrenians and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland.

A Manchester HIV charity has also been affected, as have Sheffield Hospitals Charity and the English National Ballet among others.

Beacon said on its website that hackers had copied its customer database.

However, it said it had quickly contained the incident and security measures had now been enhanced.

Robert Burns took on the lease for Ellisland Farm, beside the River Nith, in 1788 while working as an excise officer.

During the three years he lived there, he wrote some of his most famous poems and songs including Auld Lang Syne, Tam o' Shanter and My Heart's in the Highlands.