Visit Girvan is a guide to Girvan and the southern Ayrshire coast, written for people planning a visit.
Who publishes it. This site is published by the owners of the two-bedroom seafront apartment featured on the home page, which is available as a holiday let. That is the only property on this site we have any interest in, and we say so plainly rather than burying it.
What that does and does not mean. We are not run by South Ayrshire Council or the GoGirvan community group, and we take no commission, no advertising and no payment from any of the hotels, restaurants, courses, attractions or other businesses described here. Nobody has paid to be included, recommended or left out. The accommodation page lists our competitors alongside everyone else, because a guide that hid them would be worth less to you and to us.
How we write it
Every page is researched against primary sources rather than copied from other guides. Where a fact is volatile — a green fee, an opening time, a ferry port, a bus frequency — we check it against the operator's own website and say when we checked.
Where we could not verify something, we say so. You will find phrases on this site like 'we have not been able to confirm the current fee — ring the club', and that is deliberate. A guide that invents a plausible number is worse than one that admits a gap.
We also tell you when something has changed or closed, even when the change is inconvenient: Crossraguel's years behind a safety fence and its reopening, the Quay Zone's unfinished soft play, the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory fire, the funfair that is no longer at Craig Tara.
Sources we rely on
GoGirvan (the community tourism group), Destination South Ayrshire, South Ayrshire Council and Golf South Ayrshire, the National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Forestry and Land Scotland, the Ayrshire Coastal Path Rotary guidebook, RSPB, CalMac, ScotRail and Stagecoach — plus the operators, clubs and venues themselves.
Things change
This coast runs on small businesses, volunteers and the weather. Opening hours change, boats cancel, village pubs close for a fortnight, and a hard winter can shut a road. Always confirm directly with a venue before travelling if your day depends on it — every page carries that advice for a reason.
Images
Photographs come from a mix of sources, and are listed on the image credits page. Where an image is used under a Creative Commons licence the photographer keeps the copyright and is credited; some images were downloaded as royalty-free stock without the source being recorded, and are listed as such. If you are a photographer and want a credit corrected or an image removed, tell us and we will act on it.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, out of date, or unfair to a business, we want to know. Corrections are made promptly and without argument — this guide is only worth reading if it is accurate.
For practical visitor information see plan your visit; for the town itself, about Girvan.
