Garden Street, Tarbolton

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 5 Aug 2024

Heading into Tarbolton from the NorthEast this is the first part of the small town you see, and it is fairly representative of it as a whole - a mix of buildings from various times, some grander than others, but all pleasant enough. There isn't really much of an outskirt to Tarbolton; it just starts and then stops, with definite edges. Once inside, it always feels like you are at the centre. Obviously this is a bit of a generalisation, particularly as I am only an occasional visitor to the three Ayrshires (East, North and South), but to me the small towns always have a similar feel. They're nothing too special, but all quite pleasant, and have a feeling of self-sufficient contentment about them. Life seems to be being lived at the correct pace. The row of bungalows on the right was already here by the time of Ordnance Survey's first map of here, surveyed in the 1850s. A couple of small square plots are shown on the street on that first map, filled in with matrices of round trees, where more modern houses now sit. So perhaps the street took its name from these, as small orchards can also be referred to as 'fruit gardens'.

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