Ayr is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population of 46,982, Ayr is the 15th largest settlement in Scotland and second largest town in Ayrshire by population. The town is contiguous with the smaller town of Prestwick to the north. Ayr submitted unsuccessful bids for city status in 2000 and 2002, and as part of the wider South Ayrshire area in 2022.
Image: Ayr Harbour geograph.org.uk 4096429
Image: The Town Hall on New Bridge Street (geograph 6442696) (cropped)
Image: Ornate Fountain geograph.org.uk 428040
Image: Burns Cottage, Alloway 428032
Scots is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland. Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, Northern Isles, and northern Ulster, it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Goidelic Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English. Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English, as the two diverged independently from the same source: Early Middle English (1100–1300).
Statue of Robert Burns in Canberra, Australia
Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self ("Love God above all and thy neighbour as thyself"), an example of Early Scots, on John Knox House, Edinburgh
William Wye Smith's The New Testament in Braid Scots