County town: Ayr
Ayrshire developed as a sheriffdom from the 12th century, centred on Ayr, which received its burgh charter from William I around 1205.
Ayrshire occupies the Clyde coast of south-west Scotland, its fertile lowland plain backed by the Carrick and Cunninghame uplands. It is above all the county of Robert Burns, born at Alloway in 1759 — his poems and songs draw on its farming communities, its rivers, and its landscape with an intimacy that made him the national poet of Scotland. Ayrshire cattle, developed in the county from the 18th century, became one of the world's most important dairy breeds. Culzean Castle, perched above the Firth of Clyde, is one of Robert Adam's greatest works. The county's coal measures in the east were exploited from the 17th century.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Ayrshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Ayrshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
Start your Aubrey report