Narture – Sourdough, Coffee and the Auld Brig of Ayr
A few hours, from Ayr station and back.
The route
Narture is a little sourdough bakery on Cathcart Street in the middle of Ayr, where every loaf is shaped by hand.
The money from the bread pays for art projects and apprenticeships in the town. Take a coffee and something from the oven to one of its small tables. Then stroll a few minutes to the Auld Brig, the old stone bridge over the River Ayr, which Robert Burns set quarrelling with its new neighbour in a poem.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Talli House, 20 miles away. Sleeps 4; next free Fri 30 Oct to Sun 1 Nov.
Then Crossbasket Castle, 30 miles away.
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The day
Ayr
A slow morning on foot in the old heart of Ayr. Coffee and fresh bread first, then a few minutes by the river on the town's oldest bridge, and back past the Auld Kirk.
About an hour and a half
Narture Sourdough Bakery
Coffee
It's 15 minutes' walk from Ayr station through the town centre to Narture's bakery at 3 Cathcart Street, a teal corner shop lettered BREAD. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm. The sourdough is baked by hand behind the counter from organic flour, with bakes such as the cinnamon Danish and salted focaccia, and the coffee is very good. There are a few small tables inside and on the pavement, and one step at the door. If it's full, Narture's café Shape, at 32 Newmarket Street, has seats indoors.
5 min on foot
Auld Brig
Then it's 5 minutes' walk to the Auld Brig, the old stone bridge over the River Ayr, now for people on foot only. A bridge stood here by 1236, and this one has been mended and rebuilt many times since. In his poem The Brigs of Ayr, Burns has it quarrel with the New Bridge downstream, boasting that it will still stand when the new one is a heap of stones. A storm brought the New Bridge down in 1879, and the Auld Brig is still here. Walk out to the middle for the view through its arches. From its southern end it's 4 minutes' walk to the Auld Kirk of Ayr, finished in 1654, where Burns was baptised the day after he was born. Its 1656 lychgate opens onto the High Street, and Ayr station is 10 minutes' walk from there.
If it rains
In rain, linger over the coffee at Narture and keep the bridge short: it's a few minutes from the bakery door, and the Auld Kirk is on the way back to the station.
Narture Sourdough Bakery, a café in Ayr.
Photograph by Derrick James McCall via Google