Ayr

As the clock winds down on our holiday, with multiple ‘bunny-hop’ stays for the duration I’m aiming at shorter, postcard style highlights packages to fit them in.

From Hawes we drove to Ayr on Scotland's west coast, birthplace of Robert Burns, Scotland’s answer to Shakespeare. It was one of the best days of the trip on several counts. The Robert Burns Museum was beautifully presented, interpreting the great man’s life through personal items, manuscripts and recreations in the rooms of the cottage he was born in.

Maureen’s family has a connection to Burns’ famous 1791 poem Tam o’ Shanter. On the wall of the family living room in Dunedin there used to hang a painting by Maureen’s late uncle Joe of Dundee. The striking oil painting illustrates a nightmarish scene from the poem. Having stayed out late having a few too many drinks, and worried about being in trouble with his battle-axe wife, Tam gallops home furiously on his horse Meg. Only trouble is he gets chased by witches and other ghouls on the way. At the Brig o’ Doon Bridge one of the witches catches up with the horse, ripping off its tail. This was the subject of the painting. We got to walk over the actual bridge from the poem in the grounds of the museum. The bridge was the right shape but massively bigger than we expected.

That night we had a drink at the actual tavern (now called the Tam o’ Shanter) that is believed to be the one from which Tam began his fateful ride. We followed that with a meal at a place called The Bistro. It was astonishingly good. The best meals of the entire trip.

Afterwards we wandered down to the beachfront to witness the sunset over the Isle of Arran, which National Geographic rated one of the top five sunsets in the world. In this part of the world you have to wait until after ten o’clock to see the sunset (and it rises again about 4am) but it was worth it.