Ayrshire Archives

02/09/2026

To celebrate this years Ayr Show, we thought we’d showcase some of our aviation collections.

The first image comes from our Highland Express Archive. Highland Express was an airline company based at Prestwick Airport and was founded by Randolph Fields in c 1984. Randolf Fields was also the joint founder of Virgin Atlantic with Richard Branson, until they had a falling out.

The next image is from our Scottish Aviation Collection and shows two planes flying over the east side of Great Cumbrae, dated October 1945.

Lastly, we have some images from our Irvine Development Corporation Collection showing the Concord at Prestwick Airport in June 1973.

28/08/2026

Continuing with our ‘Back to School’ theme, we thought we’d share some extracts from the Logbook of Wallacetown School dated 1898 (CO3/10/7/64/1/1), which is held within our collections.

The entries were written by the Headteacher who seems frustrated by the poor attendance of his pupils and the excuses made by the parents to explain their absences. Explanations for the absences range from pupils tending to their sick mother who had a ‘sore throat’, to the school gates being shut and pupils claiming they were having their boots mended. In some instances, the Headteacher went to the pupil’s house to confront the parents over the absence!

All of our school catalogues are available on our new online catalogue Epexio: https://catalogue.ayrshirearchives.org.uk/collections/education

26/08/2026

For all the family historians out there, some new items available from the Scotland's People online shop.

New, at our online Shop: We’ve created a beginner’s guide packed with activities to help you learn to trace, record and connect your story across generations.

Find out more about our workbooks 👉bit.ly/SPHistoryBook

20/08/2026

Today children in South Ayrshire are heading back to school after their summer break 📚

In rural villages, school attendance was often challenging in the summer weather owing to the commitments of countryside living. In 1907 the Headmaster of Barr Primary School noted in the school logbook, the reason for absences were on account of raspberry picking. The following summer of 1908, after poor attendance on the first day the school re-opened, children were granted an extra weeks holiday.

These records were handed to Ayrshire Archives in 2012. Often when long serving staff members leave or schools close, historical school records are lost. Schools depositing historical records with the archives safeguards the history of the school for future generations.
Reference CO3/10/74/1/2

06/08/2026

Today we are celebrating the life of Alexander Fleming who was born on the 6 August 1881 near Darvel.

As a local Ayrshire man, Alexander Fleming attended Kilmarnock Academy and was enrolled at the school in 1894.

Alexander was also awarded The Freedom of the Burgh by Darvel on the 26 October 1946. After his death in 1955, Darvel Burgh erected two memorials to commemorate Alexander’s life and the important contribution he made to medicine through discovering penicillin. One was at Lochfield Farm to mark his birthplace and the second was a memorial garden within Darvel.

Image 1: KA043, Alexander Fleming admission
Image 2: Accession 16/018, Presentation of the Freedom of the Burgh programme
Image 3: Accession 16/018, Memorial design
Image 4: Accession 16/018, Newspaper clipping of memorial unveiling

04/08/2026

We are please to announce that Ayrshire Archives will be participating in Open Doors Day this year!

Information regarding the event can be found here https://www.doorsopendays.org.uk/regions/ayrshire/ayrshire-archives

If you are interested in booking a spot on one of our tours, please contact us directly on 01292 616260 or [email protected]

30/07/2026

Following on from the "Glasgow Fair fortnight" we thought is was a good opportunity for us to share some holiday related images from our collections.

Historically, the fair fortnight was a time when local businesses and factories in Glasgow and the surrounding areas closed, with everyone taking their summer holidays at the same time. It was also the time when Ayrshire miners would take their holidays to spend time with their families. Glasgow workers and their families took this opportunity to pack their bags and take a trip "doon the watter" to Millport or Rothesay or to the Ayrshire coast.

With flights becoming more readily available to the general public and the advent of the package holiday, families chose to travel further afield to enjoy their precious holidays in the sun.

Today the Glasgow Fair is celebrated on the Saturday before the 3rd Monday in July.

Our selection of images includes means of travel, places to stay and some entertainment to keep the holiday makers amused.

1. AA/DC143/1/1/1 - Passengers boarding steamer, West Bay, Rothesay, Isle of Bute (c.1930).
2. Newmilns Civic Week Brochure (Box26/260) - Advert for Western SMT Excursions (1949).
3. AA/DC98/3/1 - Advertising pamphlet for Hollybush House Hotel showing tariff (no date).
4. CO3/17/1/22/21 - Black Bull Hotel, Cumnock (no date).
5. AA/DC98/2/6 - Sundrum Castle Hotel Ballroom (c.1940)
6. AA/DC425/1/5 - Gaiety Theatre, Ayr programme for "Popplewell's Gaiety Whirl, Summer Season, 1936".
7. Ayrshire Introduction to the County (Box20b/1068) - Timetable for "Pleasure Sailings", Season 1960.
8. Ayrshire Introduction to the County (Box20b/1068) - Map "Cruising on the Firth of Clyde". (1960)
9. Ayrshire Introduction to the County (Box20b/1068) - Advert "Ayr for Health and Pleasure". (1960)
10. Accession 08/154 - Butlins Entertainment Programme (front cover) for week beginning 1 September 1984.
11. Accession 22/026, 7.10 - Passengers boarding a Scottish Airlines plane.
(c. 1940's)

24/07/2026

After months of hard work, we are delighted to announce that we have a new online catalogue on our website! For the first time, users are able to search across our catalogued collections 🔍

The catalogue has over 36,600 descriptions of records held at our repositories in Ayr and Kilmarnock. Keep an eye out as more descriptions will continue to be added. You can now search our collections by text, reference number or browse the catalogues by category. If you find records you would like to view, please contact us on [email protected] to arrange an appointment.

🔗Visit the new online catalogue here: https://catalogue.ayrshirearchives.org.uk/

19/07/2026

For those of you without an ice-cream maker this we thought we would post this letter from the Manager of the West of Scotland Agricultural College Dairy School giving details of ingredients and instructions on how to produce ice cream.

After reading it, I think it would be much easier to pay a visit to your local ice-cream shop, and let them do all the hard work for you. 🍦🍨
Letter - Acc 16/229
Welcome Cafe, Cumnock - CO3/17/1/22/1
Carlton Cafe, Ayr - CO3/17/1/8/11A
Ice Cream Cone - Acc 09/159

10/07/2026

Whether you consider yourself a tennis fan or not; I'm sure many of us know from the 29th of June the 2026 Wimbledon championships have begun!🎾

The event has been held annually since 1877 and is the third of the four Grand Slam tennis events each year, held after the Australian Open and the French Open and before the US Open. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious!

Accompanying the warm summer weather🌞; refreshments such as strawberries and cream are traditionally consumed at the tournament, in latter years accompanied by champagne. The origin of this tradition has been said to derive from a visit King Henry VIII paid to his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, whose home was at Hampton Court, about six miles from Wimbledon, when the chancellor's cook is rumoured to have served wild strawberries and cream as a dessert. Since the King ate it, the dessert gained popularity. Its estimated that around 34,000 kg of British strawberries and 10,000 litres of cream are consumed during the tournament😱

To mark the occasion of this prestigious event; we have decided to share a piece of tennis related history from Ayrshire.

Gr1/38/92 - Layout plan for 4 proposed tennis courts for Irvine Burgh plus details of stop net fencing, architect - Robert Proven, Rutherglen, Glasgow. Scale 1"=10' (12th December 1921)
1013 - Extracted letter invitation from Ardrossan Lawn Tennis Club correspondence book (8 November 1948)