Our route from Luce Bay to Stirling took us on a small road up the south-east coast via Auchenmaig, Cairnryan, Ballantrae, Ledalfoot, Girvan and Maybole to Ayr, the latter a surprisingly solid and stately city with massive stone edifices that bespoke a lot of money at one time. Had the weather been clearer we would have looked seawards towards Arran and the Mull of Kintyre. We did see Ailsa Craig looming out of the misty rain. All the smaller towns and villages follow the Scottish pattern of stone houses lining either side of the road and opening directly onto the pavement. Smaller cottages are quite austere but always with some slight adornment.
It was interesting to pass through Ayrshire and recognize names – Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs – associated with the Deans, Manson and Gebbie families who emmigrated to New Zealand in the 1840s and finally settled in Christchurch and Lyttelton Harbour.
North-east from Ayr past Kilmarnock, through Glasgow and on up to Stirling, all with the help of Herbert, our indispensible SatNav guide. (Both new to SatNav and skeptics at first, Russ and I are total converts). In Stirling we are spread out over the second and third floors of a Victorian sandstone villa known as Pear Tree House. This is the first time in two weeks we have really been able to ‘unpack’. We are a stone’s throw from the city centre, close to the castle, but in a quiet residential street. Perfect.
We went out walking later afternoon, found the visitor info, did some food shopping, enjoyed the massive gravitas of the central city buildings (even in what is a relatively small town), had a pub meal and blobbed out, travel-weary, back at Pear Tree House.
Buildings in the old city…
JaneRussell journeys 
Hi Jane, Enjoying reading all this.
LikeLike