South Ayrshire is a county on the South West coast of Scotland North of Dumfries and Galloway and South of the ‘Central Belt’. South Ayrshire has a population of over 110,000 and a land mass of 459 sq miles.

Ayr is the administrative and financial centre of South Ayrshire with a population of over 40,000 people. The economy was dominated by textiles, however the huge carpets and lining factories are now closed with shopping and service industries replacing them as major employers. Ayr is a shopping Mecca for people living in South Ayrshire with department stores and superstores common on the main streets. Ayr Academy is Scotland’s oldest secondary school.

Prestwick has a population of over 15,000 and lies 30 miles from Glasgow and forms a continuous habitation with Ayr. The town is famous for its golf course (home of the first Open Golf tournament in 1860 and tournaments ever since) and its international airport.

Girvan is a seaside tourist resort with sandy beaches and a population of over 8,000 most of whom are involved in service industries.

Ballantrae is a small village in North Ayrshire made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson in his story The Master of Ballantrae which depicted a family ripped apart by the Jacobite uprising and the subsequent civil war in Scotland

Turnberry is a celebrated golf resort with 5-star hotels and one of the best golf courses in the world in the Ailsa course.

Robert Burns is the national poet or ‘Bard’ of Scotland and is celebrated every January with a traditional meal of Haggis and vegetables accompanied by the national drink Whisky. The cottage where Burns grew up in Alloway near Ayr is still a tourist attraction. Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns was born to a working class family in 1759 and is famous for poems such as ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘Tam o’Shanter’ and ‘To a Mouse’.