Palms, Poets & Pilgrims - Day 1

Burns, baby, Burns!

Start your journey with an ice cream on the front in the seaside town of Ayr before heading south to the Burns National Heritage Park in Alloway. See Burns' birthplace and the famous Burns Cottage.

Next stop is Culzean Castle & Country Park. Robert Adam converted a fortified tower house into this very impressive Italianate cliff-top castle between 1777 and 1792. Culzean was designated Scotland's first country park in 1969. The park features Adam's Roman viaduct and ruined arch, as well as a deer park, swan pond, pagoda and cliff-top and woodland walks.

Head towards Maybole, then to Kirkoswald to see Souter Johnnie's Cottage, the home of John Davidson, village souter (shoemaker), who was the original Souter Johnnie of Robert Burns' Tam O'Shanter.

There is a large selection of places to stay for the night in Ayr.