CHAPTER XXIX 



THE AYR, DO ON, GIRVAN, AND STINCHAR 

 DISTRICTS 



RIVER AYR 



ANGLING SEASON: llth February to 31st October. 

 NETTING SEASON: llth February to 26th August. 



District Boards for Ayr and Doon meet in Ayr. 



The Ayr with its tributaries drains an area of no less than 

 220 square miles, and is a river of very considerable size. In 

 the matter of salmon fisheries it is much better than it was, 

 but has not yet reached the position it might occupy amongst 

 rivers. In the past it has suffered from hard netting, coupled 

 with pollutions and the presence of dam-dykes unprovided with 

 salmon passes. Of late years all the netting, whether in river 

 or on the coast, right of which goes with Auchincruive, has 

 been suspended, pollution has been diminished, and certain 

 dykes have been provided with passes. As a result, the river 

 is distinctly on the up grade. It is a populous and a sporting 

 district, however, and in certain sections of it the laxity of 

 protection, which prevailed in the past, is still reflected in the 

 freedom with which unauthorised fishers practise their art by 

 curious methods and at strange times. 



The river has its source in small hill burns a short distance 

 east of Muirkirk, close to the divide where the Douglas Water 

 rises to flow away north-east to the Clyde above Lanark. It 

 is a dreary, wind-swept country this region of the county 

 march between Ayr and Lanark. The Ponesk Burn, which 

 rises from Priesthill Height, is the highest source, and from 

 here to the sea, by the course of the Ayr, is about 36 miles. 

 The Greenock Water, the highest tributary of any size, rises a 



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