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Ayrshire History

From Edinburgh we took a day trip to Ayrshire to check out the Village of Barr (my mother was a Barr) and Barr Tower in the village of Galston, near Kilmarnock. It is exactly like Windsor... except smaller and has no tower and is smaller and has no battlements and is smaller and has no garden and is smaller.… It is on a rise near the edge of town overlooking a creek; I can see how it provided defenses for the village residents in the 15^th century when it was built. Basically a five-story, red-brick building that passed from the Lockhart family to the Campbell clan, it is now being used as a Masonic Lodge.

The Village of Barr itself, about thirty miles south, is quite delightful with about forty houses, a church, a pub and a stream flowing alongside the main road. New construction across the bridge would indicate the town is doing well. We got lost on the moors leaving there and, after an hour of horrendous driving, wound up back in the village again. I was trying to figure out how my family ever got out of there.

Fortunately, the sun sets at about 10 pm so we drove back to Edinburgh still in the light (it rises at 4 am). We forget how far north Scotland is and that it, too, shares an almost "midnight sun."

Ayrshire is in the Lowlands (as opposed to the Highlands) and families there wear no clans or tartans. They do have spectacular scenery, however, and the Southern Uplands were beautiful.

Petrol (gas) is the equivalent of nearly $8/gallon so we’re not complaining about the $2.29/gallon we encountered here at home (well, yes, we are complaining but not quite as loudly).

Next: Fishing Villages and Balmoral

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