East Ayrshire is a Scottish county between the Central region and has a border to the South on Glasgow. East Ayrshire has over 119,000 over an area of 487 sq miles.

Kilmarnock is the largest town in East Ayrshire and lies between Glasgow and Ayr having a population of over 44,000. The name comes from the Gaelic word ‘cill’ meaning ‘kirk’ or church plus the name of Saint Marnock who founded a church in the area in 322AD.

Kilmarnock is famous for its textiles (carpets by BMK) and heavy engineering (locomotives by Andrew Barclay and Sons and valves by Glenfield and Kennedy)

A smaller town in East Ayrshire is Cumnock where Scots nationalist hero William Wallace and parliamentarian and founder of the Labour Party James Kier Hardie spent time.