SOUTH AYRSHIRE

The third Ayrshire region has a number of main selling points, not least its beautiful scenery.

Ayr. Troon. Prestwick. Chances are, those three names have conjured up a welter of images in your mind ñ family days at the beach, famous golfers receiving rapturous applause for a well-judged birdie, holidays abroad. South Ayrshire is an evocative county, guaranteed to create mental pictures in the minds of anyone who hears it.

With a lack of heavy industry and engineering, South Ayrshire has been less affected by the winds of change than its more industrial neighbours to the east. Instead, this has always been a service region, particularly fuelled by tourism, typified by Troon residents who hire their homes out during major golf tournaments for huge sums of money.

Across the county, you can see the low-rise skylines which are possible where land is plentiful. Thereís a preponderance of bungalows, with almost no high-rise apartment blocks but plenty of modern two and three-storey buildings offering 21st century living to people who enjoy having Glasgow within reach, yet not too close at hand. House builders have flocked here, perhaps unsurprisingly, from Ayr to Girvan, and only now is the pace of building slowing.