Ayr - Hotel .co.uk - Call us on 01292 262 708
83 Whitletts Road, Ayr, KA8 0JD
Corrilean guest house based opposite Ayr's famous race course is a family run bed and breakfast with all rooms on suite. Family rooms from just £45 and single room rates from just £22. Close to Prestwick Airport.
email your booking: sales@corrilean.co.uk
Things to see and do in Ayrshire
The County town of Ayr dates from a medieval castle, long gone. Today Ayr retains the look of a market town. It has a river, cathedral and a university. The attributes of a city in fact, but its hopes of becoming one was dashed twice – once at the millennium celebrations and also at the Queens golden jubilee celebrations. However, Ayr is one of the most popular holiday towns in Scotland. Standing on the seaside it has a long sandy beach, which was crowded when I came to the area in 1973. Although the beach now proudly flies the blue flag to signify that it is up to EU hygiene standards, people nowadays seem to be a bunch of softies for the beach is usually quiet. At the heart of Ayr is a modern, busy shopping centre, attracting many visitors throughout the year. Ayr Racecourse runs many Flat and National Hunt meetings. It is famous as the setting for the Scottish Grand National, the Ayrshire Handicap and the Ayr Gold Cup.Numbered among Scottish kings and heroes born in Ayrshire are the great freedom fighter Robert the Bruce and - legend has it - William Wallace (Braveheart). King Coilus (possibly "Old King Cole") lived here too. You would never know it though. The national bard Robert Burns (1759-96) spent his early years in the village of Alloway near Ayr and his memory is preserved. No visit to Ayrshire is complete without a pilgrimage to his birthplace in Alloway. There are Burns societies worldwide – even Russia. Celebrated in verse and song at the annual Burns Suppers, his message, A man’s a man for a’ that strikes a chord with humanity the world over.
Burns birthplace, a thatched cottage built in 1757 by his father, contains many relics. Towards the River Doon you can visit The Tam o' Shanter Experience and learn more about Burns life and work. Visit Kirk Alloway and think of Tam o'Shanter as he watched the Warlocks and witches in a dance. Look for the grave of Burns father. From the Kirk you will see Burns Monument and the road leading to the famous Brig o'Doon. Tam o'Shanter managed to flee from the witches over the Brig, for A running stream they dare na cross. About a dozen miles from Ayr is Tam o' Shanter’s home, the small village of Kirkoswald. The Tam o'Shanter cottage is open for you to view. His grave is in the local cemetery.
Ayrshire has a tremendous golfing history. Prestwick in Ayrshire is the birthplace of Open Golf. Present-day Royal Troon has hosted many Opens. The youngest of Scotland’s Open Championship settings is Turnberry. It had its first Open in 1977. Built in 1906 it was the first hotel and golf complex in the world. Often when the rest of Britain is shivering in a freezing winter, the temperature at Turnberry is mild.
There are numerous stately homes and castles in Ayrshire. Foremost among them is Culzean.
It is a romantic eighteenth century Castle built by Robert Adam for David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassillis. It perches on the cliff edge above the Firth of Clyde with ever changing views of the Isle of Arran and of the looming bulk of Ailsa Craig. Sometimes they seem so close that you feel you could reach out and touch them! Curling stones fashioned in Mauchline from granite from Ailsa Craig supply the world. Curling is a sport at which Scotland excels at and is currently the world champion.
Culzean Country Park of over 500 acres offers something for everyone with its wooded walks, the Swan Pond, Adventure Playground, Walled Gardens, shoreline, Visitor Centre, shops and restaurants.
Vikings
For those interested in the Vikings in Scotland from their invasion to defeat at
the battle of Largs in 1263 a visit to Largs up the coast is called for. It is
all presented at the Vikingar visitors centre.
Industrial Heritage
Scotland has a proud maritime and shipbuilding tradition. The River Clyde was
the most famous shipbuilding river in the world. Visit the Scottish Maritime
Museum in Irvine to see some of the former glory. Nowadays many of the harbours
on the Clyde contain marinas. There are six in the Clyde that give permanent
berthing and more that give overnight berthing.
Ayrshire used to have a thriving steel industry. It has all gone now. One of the sites was at Waterside in the Doon Valley. Following the demise of the blast furnaces a brick works was set up. This has now also gone but the site is being preserved. I always marvel as I drive through how like the site is to those found where model trains travel through make believe landscapes. There is actually a steam train that will still take you for a short run down the track.
Ayrshire is on top of a huge coalfield but little of the coal industry remains. The forerunner of the railways, however, was the waggonways transporting coal from the mines. Evidence of their routes and bridges are all over Ayrshire. The first true railway in Ayrshire was from coalmines at Kilmarnock to Troon Harbour.
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