Girvan

Girvan's accommodation is modest and practical rather than glamorous, which suits its character as a working harbour town rather than a resort. Expect a handful of harbourside guesthouses and small hotels within walking distance of the beach and station, along with self-catering cottages scattered through the town and along the coast towards Ballantrae and Turnberry. Caravan and holiday parks are well established in this part of Ayrshire, taking advantage of the sea views and easy access to golf, castles and coastal walking. Booking ahead in summer is sensible, particularly around the peak weeks when Ailsa Craig boat trips and the beach are busiest, but Girvan rarely feels overrun compared with better-known Scottish coastal towns, so there is usually reasonable choice even at short notice. For those wanting something more characterful than a standard hotel room, the countryside around Culzean and Turnberry offers a wider spread of cottages and rural stays within easy reach of Girvan itself.

Girvan rewards a slow pace, but there is a genuinely good spread of things to see and do in and around the town.

• Girvan Harbour — a working harbour with fishing boats moored alongside leisure craft, and the departure point for boat trips out to Ailsa Craig during the summer months.
• Ailsa Craig boat trips — sail out to the volcanic plug island, home to one of the largest gannet colonies in the world along with puffins and other seabirds; the island's granite is still quarried for Olympic curling stones.
• Girvan beach and promenade — a long stretch of sand with traditional seaside amusements, a boating pond, and views across to Ailsa Craig and Arran.
• The McKechnie Institute — an 1889 Scottish Baronial building endowed by local businessmen Thomas and Robert McKechnie, now a gallery and heritage space telling the story of Girvan's fishing, farming and lifeboat history.
• Culzean Castle and Country Park — Robert Adam's clifftop masterpiece for the Kennedy family, around eight miles north of Girvan, set in extensive parkland run by the National Trust for Scotland.
• Turnberry — the famous golf links and lighthouse a few miles up the coast, worth a visit even if you are not playing.
• Carrick Forest and the Galloway hills — inland from Girvan, quieter walking and cycling country rising towards the Galloway Forest Park.

Girvan is well known locally for its fish and chips, with Graziano's Harbour Cafe by the harbour and The Marine Fish Restaurant on Bridge Street both regularly rated among the best chippies in the area. There is also a scattering of everyday cafes, takeaways and pubs around the town centre, including the Central Bar, giving visitors a straightforward, unpretentious choice of places to eat after a day on the beach or out on the water.

Ayrshire's coast around Girvan is well suited to camping, with sandy beaches, low cliffs and rolling farmland giving a good choice of settings. Scotland's approach to wild camping is more permissive than south of the border: under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, wild camping is generally allowed on most unenclosed land, provided you camp responsibly, keep to small numbers, leave no trace and avoid enclosed fields, gardens or land close to buildings. In practice this means the coastline and hills inland towards Carrick and the Galloway Forest offer legitimate wild camping opportunities for those prepared to be self-sufficient, though the areas immediately around Girvan's beach and harbour are more built up and better suited to a proper campsite than a wild pitch.

For a more straightforward stay, established caravan and camping parks are dotted along the coast between Girvan, Turnberry and Ballantrae, many taking advantage of sea views towards Ailsa Craig and Arran, with a growing number of glamping pods and static options for those who want the setting without full-on tent camping. Late spring to early autumn is by far the best season, when the weather is at its most settled and the seabird colonies on Ailsa Craig are active, though this is still an exposed Atlantic-facing coast and campers should always come prepared for wind and rain even in midsummer. Pitching with a view across to the island as the sun goes down, with the sound of the harbour in the distance, is one of the simple pleasures of camping this stretch of the Ayrshire coast.