Girvan - The Boating Lake - a photo on Flickriver

Girvan - The Boating Lake

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card was printed in Great Britain.

Girvan

Girvan is a harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies 21 miles (34 km) south of Ayr, and 29 miles (47 km) north of Stranraer, the main ferry port from Scotland to Northern Ireland.

Prehistory and Archaeology of Girvan

Between 1996 and 1998, archaeological investigations were undertaken as part of an expansion of the William Grant & Sons distillery. This work discovered several burnt mounds that dated to the later third millennium BC and a Iron Age trackway. 

A Medieval moated enclosure was also found; this is a house or compound surrounded by a moat. These are usually the homes of minor aristocracy but are rare in Scotland (of the roughly 5400 known from mainland Britain, only 120 are in Scotland). 

It is surmised that it might have belonged to the Bruce family, and that the house was known to Robert the Bruce, as he was born five miles away at Turnberry.

Girvan was originally a fishing port, although with the opening of the railways, Girvan developed as a seaside resort with beaches and cliffs. 

Holidaying here from 1855 to 1941 were Robert and Elizabeth Gray and their children; particularly Alice and Edith Gray. The family, led principally by Elizabeth and Alice, created scientifically organised collections of fossils for several museums, including the Natural History Museum.

Places of Interest

Knockcushan Gardens contain the old 'Hill of Justice' stone, and a plaque records that King Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick held a court here in 1328.

The McKechnie Institute was endowed by local businessmen Robert and Thomas McKechnie, was opened in 1889.

Culzean Castle is about 8 miles (13 km) north of the town, and the volcanic island of Ailsa Craig is visible about 10 miles (16 km) offshore. Turnberry golf course and hotel are located north of Girvan. 

The coastline south of Girvan is famous for its geology, and also for the Sawney Bean Caves at Bennane Head, where the murderer and cannibal Sawney Bean reputedly lived until his arrest and execution in Edinburgh.

The town's swimming pool was closed in 2009 by South Ayrshire Council, on the grounds that it had reached the end of its operational life. The building has since been demolished. 

A new leisure centre, named 'The Quay Zone' was officially opened on the 26th. April 2017. 'The Quay Zone' is sited on the old swimming pool's location at the harbour.

Taken on: January 8, 2022

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Girvan

boating

lake

printed

Great

Britain

Carrick

South

Ayrshire

Scotland

Firth

Clyde

1996

1998

Bruce

Robert

fishing

seaside

resort

1855

1941

fossils

2017

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Sets appears in: • Boating Lakes • UK

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