Tam O'shanter Inn, 230 High Street, Ayr, Ayr, South Ayrshire

Entry Name: Tam O'shanter Inn, 230 High Street, Ayr

Listing Name: 230 High Street

Listing Date: 5 February 1971

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 357025

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB21638

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200357025

Location: Ayr

County: South Ayrshire

Town: Ayr

Electoral Ward: Ayr West

Traditional County: Ayrshire

Tagged with: Inn

Description

Rebuilt 1808. Two-storey, three-bay inn. Painted and rendered walls. Base course; corniced fascia with 'Tam O' Shanter Inn'; painted margins to window openings.

Southwest (Entrance) Elevation: central pilastered and corniced doorpiece; two-leaf timber boarded door with an elaborate iron-work lantern above and framed picture at first floor. Single windows flanking at ground and first floor (left hand window at ground enlarged, smaller windows at first floor). Carved heads beneath outer windows between ground and first floors.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation: single storey lean-to ancillary structures with slated roofs.

Twelve-pane timber sash and case windows. Reed roof; turf ridge; mutual gablehead chimney stacks with circular cans.

Interior: stone floor; timber ceiling beams; fireplace; plaque.

Statement of Interest

The building is of particular note for retaining its reed-thatched roof (probably originally a straw thatch). Picture above entrance by J.A .Paterson in 1956. Associated with Robert Burns' poem of the same name (although there is nothing in the poem which allows even tentative identification with any of the many inns of the late 18th century). Close suggests the name was bestowed upon the inn by the enterprising publican John Glass, looking to increase trade (p.18).

It is among a relatively small number of traditional buildings with a surviving thatched roof found across Scotland. A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland, published in 2016 by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), found there were only around 200 buildings of this type remaining, most of which are found in small rural communities. Thatched buildings are often traditionally built, showing distinctive local and regional building methods and materials. Those that survive are important in helping us understand these traditional skills and an earlier way of life.

Listed building record revised in 2021 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review.

External Links

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