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.