Community Leaders Aim to Revitalize Girvan with Unique Local Initiatives
Cath Maguire and Zanne Domoney-Lyttle are among those working to rejuvenate the Ayrshire seaside town of Girvan, supported by King Tat, the town's potato mascot.
Cath Maguire recalls the bustling summer days of Girvan, when day-trippers and holidaymakers filled the streets.
"People were already saying it was slowing down from the town's heyday, but in the summer season you would have to elbow your way up the street,"
she reflects. These memories date back to the early 1990s, decades after Girvan's peak as a holiday resort.
However, the town's gradual decline accelerated sharply through the 1990s and 2000s.
Currently, several local residents are actively seeking to regenerate Girvan, aiming for a revival that differs from its former glory.
Cath, a development officer with Go Girvan, a group dedicated to enhancing the town through community events and repurposing unused buildings, has lived in Girvan since 1994.
"At first the decline was quite slow, then it just fell off a cliff,"
she explains.
"Suddenly there were businesses closing, shops not being looked after and things like that.
It was a perfect storm - there was a loss of income, there were package holidays and a lot of the fishing community moved to Troon."
Girvan was once a favored destination for fishermen and tourists.
Challenges Facing Girvan Today
Like many coastal towns across the UK, Girvan was heavily impacted by the rise of package holidays and affordable overseas travel.
More than fifty years later, the town continues to face challenges including transport limitations and a shortage of employment opportunities for young people.
Gail McMaster, a project coordinator with the Girvan Youth Trust, highlights the difficulties faced by local youth.
"People in Girvan can often get overlooked, if you live here and not somewhere like Ayr,"
she says.
"Transport is absolutely a barrier for young people in the area - there's one train an hour at best - but what we want to do to give them as many skills as possible to help them as much as possible."
Gail and her colleague Michelle Scobie work with young people and also operate a café within the town's train station, selling cakes and sweets from a local baker.
This café is one of several community-led projects emerging in Girvan.
"Girvan still has a great sense of community and it is full of people who want to be involved,"
Michelle notes.
"There are a lot of good things here - we are blessed with a lovely promenade, a lovely beach and some lovely countryside."
Preserving History While Embracing Change
Zanne Domoney-Lyttle, lead project officer with Girvan's Story, a five-year initiative funded by South Ayrshire Council to improve several landmark buildings, shares a similar optimistic outlook.
On a windy day along the promenade, she spoke to BBC Scotland News about her hopes for Girvan, where she has lived for five years.
"One of the lovely things about Girvan is that people are very nostalgic about it,"
she said.
"It has quite a long history, and that's really important for us to draw upon that.
But it's also important that while those are still mainstays, we are also diversifying and making sure that it's not just buildings that are here another 200 years, but the community is as well."
Residents and project leaders agree that Girvan cannot rely solely on its past as a tourist destination.
Amusement arcades remain on street corners and shops sell traditional seaside items such as buckets and spades, but the town must evolve.
"It's not about replicating what we did in the past, but learning from it and not being afraid to try new things,"
Zanne explains.
"We want something sustainable that's not flash in the pan, something that will work for the town for 50 years."
Unique Local Traditions and Community Spirit
One distinctive element of Girvan’s community efforts is the annual Tattie Fest, celebrating the Ayrshire epicure potato.
In the window of the Go Girvan building, a large paper-mâché costume of King Tat, the potato mascot, is displayed. The costume is worn by a local during the festival, which began about four years ago.
"It's the first to come out the ground in the season and we are quite proud of that,"
Cath says.
"Someone gets into the King Tat suit, and there is a female one called Tatiana too.
We want to develop things that are unique to Girvan - maybe a bit quirky and weird, but very much part of the town."
Historic Sites and Regeneration Efforts
Chris Saunders, representing the Adventure Centre for Education charity, is optimistic about Girvan’s regeneration prospects.
Inside Stumpy Tower, a former jail and the last remaining part of the town's historic heritage, Zanne emphasizes the area's character.
"Girvan has a bit of a dark side, whether stories of pirates and smugglers at the cove, or the Sawney Bean legend - about a cannibal family in the area. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter, it's all about that myth that this area has."
Despite these cultural assets, many shops remain empty, some displaying Covid-19 safety signs that indicate how long they have been closed. The beach is quiet.
Near the seafront stands a derelict bandstand building. Inside, one finds rolled-up posters, broken chairs, and an abandoned carpet ball table.
Recently, the Adventure Centre for Education charity acquired the bandstand with plans to convert it into a café and events space.
"I think it'll have a transformative effect on people's psychology, seeing a derelict building come back to life,"
Chris Saunders says.
"If you look out to a derelict building it's not a good thing for your thought process – this is a beautiful building and when it is brought back to life it is going to look beautiful again."
Additional Regeneration Plans and Community Perspectives
Plans are also underway to repurpose the former South Parish Church as an events venue, led by Alan James, a long-standing local veterinarian who organizes Girvan's arts festival.
"There is a raft of things that aren't massive in their own right, but they are all happening now,"
he says.
"There does seem to be a feel that something is happening in Girvan again."
However, some locals express concern about persistent issues such as youth unemployment and poverty cycles in deprived areas.
Both Go Girvan and Girvan's Story aim to address these challenges by restoring unused buildings and creating job opportunities.
Chris Saunders acknowledges that the bandstand project will be a lengthy process but describes the town positively.
"People say 'if you could live anywhere else, where would it be, but I look at the scenery here every day and go 'this is stunning'. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
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