South Ayrshire: Burns Heritage and Championship Golf
Robert Burns was born in Alloway, on the southern outskirts of Ayr, in 1759. The cottage still stands. The Burns Monument, the Brig o' Doon, and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum form a literary pilgrimage trail that draws visitors from around the world — particularly from the United States and Canada, where the Scottish diaspora maintains a fierce attachment to Burns. Ayr itself, the county town, is a seaside resort of about 46,000 people that prospered when Glaswegians took their holidays on the Clyde coast. The beach is long and sandy, the racecourse hosts flat and jump meetings, and the town centre retains some fine Georgian and Victorian architecture alongside the inevitable retail park development.
South of Ayr, the coast runs through Turnberry — home to the Trump Turnberry golf resort and one of the Open Championship's rotation courses — down to Girvan, a quieter working town with a harbour and views to Ailsa Craig, the volcanic island that provides the granite for most of the world's curling stones. Culzean Castle (pronounced "cull-AIN"), a Robert Adam masterpiece perched on cliffs above the sea, is the National Trust for Scotland's most visited property. Prestwick Airport, once the only Scottish airport receiving transatlantic flights, now handles budget carriers and cargo. Maybole and the surrounding Kyle district are rural, agricultural, and among the more deprived parts of the council area.
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Robert Burns was born in Alloway, on the southern outskirts of Ayr, in 1759. The cottage still stands. The Burns Monument, the Brig o' Doon, and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum form a literary pilgrimage trail that draws visitors from around the world — particularly from the United States and Canada, where the Scottish diaspora maintains a fierce attachment to Burns. Ayr itself, the county town, is a seaside resort of about 46,000 people that prospered when Glaswegians took their holidays on the Clyde coast. The beach is long and sandy, the racecourse hosts flat and jump meetings, and the town centre retains some fine Georgian and Victorian architecture alongside the inevitable retail park development.
South of Ayr, the coast runs through Turnberry — home to the Trump Turnberry golf resort and one of the Open Championship's rotation courses — down to Girvan, a quieter working town with a harbour and views to Ailsa Craig, the volcanic island that provides the granite for most of the world's curling stones. Culzean Castle (pronounced "cull-AIN"), a Robert Adam masterpiece perched on cliffs above the sea, is the National Trust for Scotland's most visited property. Prestwick Airport, once the only Scottish airport receiving transatlantic flights, now handles budget carriers and cargo. Maybole and the surrounding Kyle district are rural, agricultural, and among the more deprived parts of the council area.
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