Ayrshire has a rich and varied history and this book will enable the reader to discover the physical traces of all periods of that history. The region was inhabited from earliest times, and many duns, cairns and barrows remain - in some of which important Mesolithic and Iron Age artifacts have been found. In medieval times Ayrshire 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, some in ruins, some preserved, remodeled and extended over the years. Most of the great monastic foundations of Ayrshire suffered irreparable damage during the Reformation and at the hands of Cromwell's armies, but many important religious buildings still stand. 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. The detailed gazetteer will enable the visitor to locate and fully appreciate the sites described. But this is a book which will also appeal to the armchair traveler and to anyone with an interest in this beautiful and varied region and in Scottish history in general. It is the only guidebook to the county available.