Ayrshire has a rich and varied history. The region has been inhabited from earliest times, as the remains of duns, cairns and barrows show. In the medieval period it played a key role in the emergence and consolidation of a unified Scotland, and it was from one of Ayrshire's many powerful families that the Stewart line of kings emerged. From this period there remain many castles and tower-houses. In more recent times, great houses such as Culzean were rebuilt by the finest architects of their day, and there are a number of important sites dating from the Industrial Revolution.

This book is both a narrative history and a guidebook featuring maps and plans as well as a detailed gazetteer enabling the visitor to locate and fully appreciate the many sites described.



Thorbjorn Campbell (aka K.T.S. Campbell) was born and bred in Ayrshire. Educated at Ayr Academy, Glasgow University (where he studied Greek, English and aesthetic philosophy) and at Jordanhill Teacher Training College, he then worked as a civil servant and a school teacher and is now retired.